{"id":231829,"date":"2026-01-14T01:10:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T01:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/231829\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T01:10:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T01:10:10","slug":"unfathomable-that-us-could-consider-taking-over-greenland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/231829\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Unfathomable’ that US could consider taking over Greenland"},"content":{"rendered":"

A senior Greenland government official said Wednesday it\u2019s “unfathomable” that the United States is discussing taking over a NATO ally<\/a> and urged the Trump administration to listen to voices from the Arctic island’s people.<\/p>\n

Naaja Nathanielsen, Greenland’s minister for business and mineral resources, said people in Greenland are “very, very worried” over the administration\u2019s desire for control of Greenland.<\/a><\/p>\n

She spoke a day before a key meeting in Washington between foreign ministers of the semi-autonomous Danish territory and Denmark and top US officials, at a time of increased tensions<\/a> between the allies over the stepped-up US rhetoric.<\/p>\n

“People are not sleeping, children are afraid, and it just fills everything these days. And we can\u2019t really understand it,” Nathanielsen said at a meeting with lawmakers in Britain’s Parliament.<\/p>\n

Earlier, a Danish government official confirmed that Denmark provided US forces in the east Atlantic with support last week as they intercepted an oil tanker<\/a> for alleged violations of US sanctions.<\/p>\n

The official, who was not authorised to comment publicly on the sensitive matter and spoke on the condition of anonymity, declined to provide details about what the support entailed.<\/p>\n

The US interception in the Atlantic capped a weeks-long pursuit of the tanker that began in the Caribbean Sea as the US imposed a blockade in the waters of Venezuela<\/a> aimed at capturing sanctioned vessels coming in and out of the South American country.<\/p>\n

The White House and Pentagon did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Danish support for the US operation was first reported by Newsmax.<\/p>\n

US Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio will meet with the foreign ministers of Denmark<\/a> and Greenland on Thursday at the White House to discuss Trump’s interest in acquiring Greenland<\/a>, according to a US official and two sources familiar with the plans who spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting has not yet been formally announced.<\/p>\n

Denmark’s foreign minister, Lars L\u00f8kke Rasmussen, said earlier that Vance would host a meeting with him and his Greenlandic counterpart, Vivian Motzfeldt, in Washington this week, with Rubio in attendance.<\/p>\n

At a joint news conference with Danish Prime Minster Mette Frederiksen in Copenhagen, Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen reiterated that Greenland isn\u2019t for sale, Danish media reported. Nielsen said Greenland doesn’t want to be owned or ruled by the US.<\/p>\n

\"Greenland's<\/p>\n

Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens Frederik Nielsen holds a press conference in Nuuk, Greenland, Monday, January 5, 2026. (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n

Frederiksen also underlined Denmark’s willingness to invest in Arctic security. She said it hasn\u2019t been easy to stand up to unacceptable pressure from a close ally and there are many indications that the most difficult part lies ahead.<\/p>\n

Nathanielsen, the minister, said of Greenland’s people: “We have no intentions of becoming American\u2026 but we have worked towards more collaboration with the Americans for many, many years.”<\/p>\n

“We feel betrayed. We feel the rhetoric is offensive,” she added, “but also bewildering”.<\/p>\n

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte<\/a> refused to be drawn into the dispute, insisting that it was not his role to get involved.<\/p>\n

“I never, ever comment when there are discussions within the alliance,” Rutte said, at the European Parliament in Brussels. “My role has to be to make sure we solve issues.”<\/p>\n

He said that the 32-nation military organisation must focus on providing security in the Arctic region, which includes Greenland. “When it comes to the protection of the High North, that is my role”.<\/p>\n

Tensions have grown this month as Trump and his administration push the issue and the White House considers a range of options, including military force, to acquire Greenland. Trump reiterated his argument that the US needs to “take Greenland,” otherwise Russia or China would, in comments aboard Air Force One on Sunday.<\/p>\n

He said he\u2019d rather “make a deal” for the territory, “but one way or the other, we\u2019re going to have Greenland”.<\/p>\n

Nathanielsen said Greenlanders understand that the US sees Greenland as part of its national security sphere.<\/p>\n

“We get it. We want to work with it,” she said, adding that “we understand the need for increased monitoring in the Arctic as a consequence of the growing geopolitical insecurity”. <\/p>\n

Nathanielsen said Greenland understands the need to “shake things up, to make things different\u2026 But we do believe that it can be done without the use of force.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said “it is just unfathomable to understand” that Greenland could be facing the prospect of being sold or annexed.<\/a><\/p>\n

A bipartisan US congressional delegation is headed to Copenhagen for meetings on Friday and Saturday in an attempt to show unity between the United States and Denmark.<\/p>\n

Nathanielsen said she thinks the people of Greenland have a say in their own future.<\/p>\n

“My deepest dream or hope is that the people of Greenland will get a say no matter what,” she said. “For others this might be a piece of land, but for us it\u2019s home.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A senior Greenland government official said Wednesday it\u2019s “unfathomable” that the United States is discussing taking over a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":231830,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[65,42,43,64,40,38,41,39,1745,66],"class_list":["post-231829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-donald-trump","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-north-america","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-uk-europe","tag-us-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}