PITUFFIK, Greenland — Vice President JD Vance blasted Denmark’s government for failing to protect and support Greenland’s population Friday — laying out America’s case for island residents to break free from Copenhagen after more than three centuries and turn instead to Washington for security and economic prosperity.
“Our argument is very simple. It is not with the people of Greenland, who I think are incredible and have an incredible opportunity here. Our argument really is with the leadership of Denmark, which has under-invested in Greenland and under-invested in its security architecture,” Vance said during a visit to the world’s largest island.
“Our message to Denmark is very simple: you have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” the veep added. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this incredible, beautiful landmass filled with incredible people.”
Vance, 40, and wife Usha visited the US Pituffik Space Base on Greenland’s northern coast and said Americans and Greenlanders can’t “bury our heads in the snow” to the island’s strategic importance to shipping lanes, military operations, and untapped economic resources.
“When the president says ‘We’ve got to have Greenland’, he’s saying this island is not safe.” Vance said in response to a question from The Post, singling out Russia and China as potential threats.
“A lot of people are interested in it, a lot of people are making a play. We hope that they [Greenlanders] choose to partner with the United States because we’re the only nation on earth that will respect their sovereignty and respect their security, because their security is very much our security.”
The vice president’s remarks, tailored to the roughly 57,000 permanent residents of the Arctic landmass, were significantly more refined than Trump’s blunt call for US annexation — with Vance saying Greenland would first have to choose independence and then enter into partnership talks with the US.
Most of Greenland’s residents are Inuit, but the area has more than a millennium of history with Nordic adventurers, including long-abandoned European settlements.
“What we think is going to happen is that the Greenlanders are going to choose, through self-determination, to become independent of Denmark, and then we’re going to have conversations with the people of Greenland from there,” Vance said.
“So I think that talking about anything too far in the future is way too premature. We do not think that military force is ever going to be necessary. We think this makes sense and because we think the people of Greenland are rational and good, we think we’re going to be able to cut a deal — Donald Trump’s style — to ensure the security of this territory but also the United States of America.”
Trump previously refused to rule out a military conquest of Greenland and has spoken as if the region would become an integral part of the US.
White House advisers have, since Trump’s first term, pushed for a “compact of free association” framework in which Greenland would be nominally independent but dependent on the US for security and economic support — similar to the arrangement with the sparsely populated and formerly US-ruled Pacific island nations of Palau, the Marshall Islands and Micronesia.
Vance also called out so-called “debt trap” infrastructure projects, which have been a trademark of Beijing’s diplomacy, and the fact that the American space base is significant for its early-warning detection capabilities for Russian missiles.
“Other countries have explicitly gone after Greenland and I think with a mind towards economic exploitation — sometimes asking Greenland to get itself in a terrible economic debt traps that would make the people of Greenland not self-determined and sovereign, but to mortgage their future to hostile foreign countries that don’t have their best interests at heart,” Vance said.
“If a missile was fired from an enemy country or an enemy submarine into the United States, it is the people here before us who would give notice to our brave men women further south in the United States,” he said.
“We know that Russia and China and other nations are taking an extraordinary interest in Arctic passageways and Arctic naval roots and indeed in the minerals of the Arctic territories, we need to ensure that America is leading in the Arctic, because we know that if America doesn’t other nations will fill the gap where we fall behind,” Vance went on.
“This base, the surrounding area, is less secure than it was 30-40 years ago because some of our allies haven’t kept up, as China and Russia have taken greater and greater interest in Greenland.”
“We know that too often our allies in Europe have not kept pace. They haven’t kept pace with military spending. And Denmark has not kept pace in devoting the resources necessary to keep this base, to keep our troops, and in my view, to keep the people of Greenland safe from a lot of very aggressive incursions from Russia, from China and from other nations.”
Pituffik, which is home to about 600 people, is the only military base in all of Greenland, and hosts roughly 150 US troops focused on international threats such as ballistic missiles. Denmark, meanwhile, has a very minimal security presence in Greenland — made up of a few sled patrol units, a single observation aircraft and a handful of patrol vessels.
The Vances were joined on their brisk and frigid tour — with the temperature hovering around -3 degrees Fahrenheit — by a group of journalists, national security adviser Mike Waltz, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee.
Usha Vance originally was due to attend Greenland’s annual dog sled race farther south, but that visit was canceled after a hostile reception from local politicians and businesses.
“We can make a tough, high Arctic environment a beautiful place to live, a comfortable place to live,” Wright declared.
Waltz added: “This is about shipping lanes. This is about energy. This is about fisheries. And of course it’s about your mission, which is keeping us safe, and monitoring space, monitoring our adversaries and making sure the American people can sleep safely in their homes.”
