« Asskalt here »: Vance visits Greenland and scolds about Europeans
US Vice President JD Vance is not afraid of confrontation and is now provoking with a controversial trip to Greenland-the ice island, which from the perspective of his boss Donald Trump the United States should belong. When he enters Greenland soil for the first time, the US vice initially wonders over the frosty minus 18 degrees. « It is a cold here, » he says to welcome the soldiers of the US military base Pituffik, the world’s northernmost US military facility.
Then he focuses on Denmark and the Europeans: « Denmark has not done a good job to keep Greenland safe, » said Vance to the soldiers. Greenland belongs to the Kingdom of Denmark, but can largely act autonomously. In view of the dangers of Russia and China, the allies in Europe would not keep pace « too often ». « You did not keep up with the military spending, and Denmark did not provide the means that are necessary to maintain this base to protect our troops. »
At the same time, he played down the statements of US President Donald Trump, according to which Greenland should belong to the United States. « If the president says that we have to have Greenland, he says that this island is not safe, » said Vance. One cannot ignore the president’s wishes. People in Greenland could determine themselves and it is hoped that they choose a partnership with the USA. « We do not believe that military violence will ever be necessary, » said Vance. Unlike Vance, Trump had not excluded the commitment of the military in the past to obtain control over Greenland.
US Vice President JD Vance (M.) and his wife Usha Vance (ML) posing with the staff of the US military base Pituffik in Greenland. Photo: AFP
Together with his wife Usha and a US delegation, Vance landed around 1,500 kilometers north of the capital Nuuk in the late afternoon (CET) at the secluded American military base. Trump’s national security advisor Mike Waltz and Minister of Energy Chris Wright are also included, as could be seen in recordings of US stations.
The Pituffik base, which was called Thule Air Base until two years ago, has immense importance for global rocket defense and space surveillance. Officially, there was a briefing on the base on the security situation in the Arctic and an encounter with the stationed US soldiers. Unofficially, Europe – primarily Denmark, whose kingdom of Greenland is included – should also have to be prepared for a new verbal attack.
This could look like the new populist world order
New government coalition on Greenland is standing
Trump has had an eye on the ice island for a long time. It is important for the world climate, but also for the military control of the Arctic, into which Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to send other soldiers, as he has just announced. Greenland is also rich in raw materials such as urgently needed rare earths. Important shipping routes also run in the region.
On the island you are anything but enthusiastic that Trump has been claiming claims for months. « We cannot accept the repeated statements about the annexation and control of Greenland, » said the previous head of government and future finance minister Múte B. Eggede and the top of the other Greenlandic parliamentary parties.
Vance did not invite Vance from the official Greenland side. Rather, the island politicians demonstrated the greatest possible unit on the day of the Vance visit: four of the five parliamentary parties signed a contract in Nuuk to a broad government coalition with which they want to withstand the pressure from the USA. The signal, sent out just a few hours before Vance, is clear: Greenland is together. The new coalition around the future Liberal Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen must now be confirmed by Parliament, which is considered a matter of form.
« Yankee, go home! »
Vance stayed away from the capital. Against the background of the continuing intermediate around the largest island on earth, you can choose your journey as an escalation or as a de-escalation: On the one hand, it is the highest representative of the Trump camp who has traveled to Greenland. On the other hand, the Vice President avoided direct contact with the Greenlandic population with the short trip to the US basis-unlike President son Donald Trump Jr. during a public visit to Nuuk in January. And also differently than was planned on his wife’s tour, originally designed for three days, and dog sled races in Sisimiut.
JD Vance and his wife Usha Vance on arrival in Greenland. It was originally planned that Usha Vance would travel without her husband and complete a program of several days on the largest island in the world. Photo: AFP
Usha Vance was originally supposed to travel to Greenland without her husband. These plans have been modified in advance, which should also have to do with the dismissal by the Greenland politics and the island population itself. New protests against the United States were planned around the original journey, which the Vice President now avoids. Already with an earlier demonstration, the unmistakable message « Yankee, Go Home! » to be read.
Is Greenland American? Trump: « I think it will happen »
Such scenes do not fit into the crooked picture at all that the Trump government wants to draw from Greenland-that of an island that absolutely wants to become part of the USA. In Pituffik, Vance now enjoys a kind of home game in front of US soldiers that he can sell as a success at home-in Nuuk or Sisimiut, there may have been threatening litters with eggs and snowballs.
