The Vice President joins his wife and national security officials on a trip to Greenland, and the territory pushes back Trump’s plans for US control.
Vice President JD Vance will visit Greenland on March 28th with his wife of the Trump administration and senior national security officials.
In a short video on March 25th, Vance announced that he shared on social media that he would visit American service members stationed in Danish territory.
“We’ll visit some of our guardians in the Space Force on the northwest coast of Greenland and check what’s going on in Greenland’s security,” Vance said.
An email from the White House shared with the Epoch Times says Vance and his wife Ushavance will receive a briefing on Arctic security issues and will meet with U.S. service members.
White House national security advisor Mike Waltz and energy secretary Chris Wright will also visit Pituffik Space Base, known as the Thule Air Base in northwest Greenland, later in the week.
The visit is trying to establish American dominance over the region as American delegations are not invited to Greenland or Denmark, and the ties between the territory and the US continue to sour the Trump administration’s pressure campaign.
However, the current government in Greenland is calling for a slow, reform path to official independence.
Vance reflected some of Trump’s concerns about territory in his video, saying “many other countries” threatened to use Greenland and its waterways as the scene for attacks against North American countries. He did not specify which countries believed to pose those threats.
He also said that the US and Danish national leaders “we ignored Greenland for too long” and that the Trump administration “can take things in a different direction.”
Similarly, a White House email said the trip would help reverse what Denmark calls “negligence and inaction” to prevent foreign invasions against the United States.
The United States has long been interested in Greenland for its strategic position in the Arctic, overseeing important air and ocean routes.
Greenland is also home to important US military infrastructure since World War II, living in missile defense and space systems to protect the US from ballistic missile attacks from Russia and China, reaching the US beyond the Arctic Circle.
Egae also suggests that Vance, Waltz and Wright’s visits were a form of foreign interference, causing “confusion” in Greenland amid already heightened fears that longtime allies might become invaders.
Similarly, Danish Prime Minister Mette Fredericksen said on March 25 that the US was exerting “unacceptable pressure” on the country and its territory, and that Denmark would “resist” the effort.