Greenland slams ‘highly aggressive’ planned visit by Usha Vance, Trump adviser – National

Second lady Usha Vance plans to travel to Greenland amid U.S. President Donald Trump’s repeated suggestions that his administration should govern the autonomous territory.

But the upcoming visit is not going over well with some local officials, after Trump’s repeated threats to annex the autonomous territory.

According to the Associated Press, Vance will leave on Thursday and return Saturday.

One of her three children will accompany her as part of a U.S. delegation that will “visit historic sites” and “learn about Greenlandic heritage,” her office says.

The cohort will also include Trump’s national security adviser Mike Waltz.

On Sunday, Greenland’s Prime Minister Múte Bourup Egede Customs Sermitsiaq, one of the country’s national newspapers, that Vance’s upcoming visit was “very aggressive,” adding that American pressure against Greenlandic society has reached critical levels.

“Standing together in Greenland has not helped, speaking out has not helped, and the diplomatic attempt at dialogue is in vain. Now the international community must react,” he said.

His comments come as Trump’s pursuit of the island gains momentum.

In a conversation with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office earlier this month, the president said he wanted to acquire Greenland in the interest of preserving international security.

“You know, Mark, we need that for international security … we have a lot of our favourite players cruising around the coast, and we have to be careful … we’ll be talking to you,” Trump said.

“I think it will happen,” the president added when asked about the U.S. annexing Greenland.

The island, which has belonged to Denmark in various capacities since the 1300s, is a self-governing territory with jurisdiction over its domestic affairs.

However, its foreign policy and defence strategies are overseen by the Danish authorities.

Denmark is a long-standing ally of the U.S., and a founding member of NATO, a military alliance that Trump has threatened to pull out of on numerous occasions.

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Greenland is also the world’s largest island and home to a substantial U.S. military base.

Bourup Egede also questioned the purpose of Vance and Waltz’s visit, saying it could only be interpreted as a “demonstration of power.”

“We are now at a level where it can in no way be characterized as a harmless visit from a politician’s wife, which is a prospect. Because what is the security adviser doing in Greenland? The only purpose is to show a demonstration of power to us, and the signal is not to be misunderstood,” he said.

Jens-Frederik Nielsen, touted to be Greenland’s next prime minister, told the same publication, that, in the wake of upcoming elections, the visit shows “a lack of respect” for Greenlandic people and its democratic process.

“If we allow ourselves to be influenced by it, for example by rushing to form a new coalition, we may become even more vulnerable to pressure,” he said.

“So let’s cool our nerves and maintain our common goal of showing the outside world that our country is not a commodity and that we have sovereignty over the country, which must be respected and no one can take it away from us,” he concluded.

— With files from The Associated Press

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