Back to Greenland, Rasmus Jarlov, chair of Denmark’s defence committee, appeared on CNN last night, offering his take on the US plans for Greenland.
In stark comments, he said:
“We can’t do it. We cannot hand over 57,000 of our citizens to become Americans against their will.”
He was also asked if he could envision a scenario where the US tries to use force to claim Greenland from Denmark.
“I certainly hope not, but that’s up to the American government. We’re not going to back down. We’re not going to hand over Greenland, regardless of what type of pressure is applied to us.”
He then went further:
“There is a lot at stake here, because this is not only a matter of being reasonable to Denmark and Greenland.
It is also a matter of the entire western alliance. Nobody’s going to be allied to a country that tries to annex parts of that country’s territory.
So if the US wants to be a global leader, and we’ve been very happy to let the US lead the world, but then you have to behave. You can’t just attack your allies and try to take their territory while at the same time trying to help Russia to gain more territory in Europe.”
We’re now waiting for JD Vance to land in Putiffik Space Base, Greenland in less than an hour.
If you’re really keen, you can track his plane on FlightRadar here.
As earlier reported, we are also expecting the US vice-president to deliver a speech while in Greenland, so let’s stay with us for all the latest updates.
Múte B. Egede, the previous prime minister who takes the role of the finance minister in the new government, also appeared on DR in the last few minutes, saying that responding to the pressure, “especially from the US and from outside,” is something that needs to be quickly addressed.
He said the new government needs to maintain “good cooperative relations with the world,” but also “secure our right to self-determination.”
He also added that the new administration wanted Danes to understand there is currently “no equality” in Greenland’s relationship with Denmark, and wanted that to be addressed.
The new Greenlandic prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, also briefly appeared on the Danish DR news channel, interviewed by a group of reporters.
He said that Denmark remained the closest neighbour and partner, followed by the US, adding he wanted to have constructive dialogue with both of them.
Asked about JD Vance’s visit, he noted that he would only visit a US military base, but repeated his criticism that “it is not showing respect for an ally” to visit just as the new government is being formed.
“I think it is a shame, but now we have a government that needs to get to work, and that will start immediately,” he said.
His criticism is not new; in an interview with Greenlandic newspaper Sermistiaq on Sunday, he said:
“The fact that the Americans know we are in the middle of coalition talks and haven’t even completed the municipal election, but still choose this moment to visit Greenland, once again shows a lack of respect for the Greenlandic people.”
One of the new government’s leaders, Aqqalu Jerimiassen, was just interviewed on Danish DR TV, and asked about his message to US vice-president JD Vance as he touches down in Pittufik space base later today.
The leader of the smallest coalition party, Atassut, said:
“It’s our country, he just need to know that.”
He adds that despite provocative rhetoric, Greenland still considers the US as its ally, adding: “Just let the people know what we don’t want to be part of the United States.”
Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen is quick off the mark with her congratulations for the new government.
In a post on social media platforms, she says:
Big congratulations to Greenland with the new government.
I wish Jens-Frederik Nielsen and the rest of the Naalakkersuisut [the government of Greenland] all the best for your work and for Greenland.
And I look forward to close cooperation in an unnecessarily conflict-filled time.
The newly formed Greenlandic government wants to push for negotiations with Denmark over the revision of the Self-Government Act, which governs the relations between Denmark and Greenland, the Danish broadcaster DR said.
The government wants to find an agreement on “a renewed and modern framework for future cooperation,” with status quo “not an option,” DR reported.
New prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, also spoke at the ceremony about Greenland being “under pressure”, as he insisted that “unity is crucial” in response.
He also added that the government wanted to work on the future relationship with Denmark “but it must be equal,” quoted by the Danish newspaper Berlingske.
Ina separate update on Facebook, published at the start of the ceremony, Nielsen said that “security and safety of the population” will be his overriding priority.
“We must have control of the immediate before we dream of the distant. And when we must decide together on the big questions about our future, it must be done with openness, responsibility and respect,” he said.
As reported earlier (10:11), four of the five parties in the new Greenlandic parliament are set to sign a coalition agreement to form the next government today.
The event is just starting now and you can watch it along with us here:
Making some of the Danish fears come true (8:23), it appears that US vice-president JD Vance could speak later from the Pituffik Space Base, Greenland, according to the Danish broadcaster TV2 reporting a notice from the European Broadcasting Union.
The speech is expected 5.45pm GMT (6.45pm CET), according to the report.
I will look out for official confirmation.
Tussas has just confirmed to the Guardian that “all connections are re-established,” and explained the very brief technical issue was do to with a power outage at Pituffik.
But it’s all back and running now.
In a development that may or may not be related to JD Vance’s visit, the Greenlandic telecommunications operator Tusass has just said that “all communication to Pituffik is down”.
“The investigation has been initiated and we are trying to re-establish the connection as soon as possible,” it added in a customer update on its website.
Pituffik is where the US base that Vance is due to visit is located.
JD Vance’s plane left for Greenland this morning and, as reported by CBS News senior White House reporter Jennifer Jacobs, scheduled to travel with him and his wife, Usha, were:
-
National security adviser Mike Waltz with his wife and former Trump homeland security adviser, Julia Nesheiwat
-
Energy secretary Chris Wright
-
US Senator Mike Lee (who appeared to be very excited by the trip to the point of sharing AI-generated visuals picturing JD Vance on Greenland).
Back to Greenland, Rasmus Jarlov, chair of Denmark’s defence committee, appeared on CNN last night, offering his take on the US plans for Greenland.
In stark comments, he said:
“We can’t do it. We cannot hand over 57,000 of our citizens to become Americans against their will.”
He was also asked if he could envision a scenario where the US tries to use force to claim Greenland from Denmark.
“I certainly hope not, but that’s up to the American government. We’re not going to back down. We’re not going to hand over Greenland, regardless of what type of pressure is applied to us.”
He then went further:
“There is a lot at stake here, because this is not only a matter of being reasonable to Denmark and Greenland.
It is also a matter of the entire western alliance. Nobody’s going to be allied to a country that tries to annex parts of that country’s territory.
So if the US wants to be a global leader, and we’ve been very happy to let the US lead the world, but then you have to behave. You can’t just attack your allies and try to take their territory while at the same time trying to help Russia to gain more territory in Europe.”
The French far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who is facing a verdict on Monday in the case involving her party’s alleged misuse of European funds for parliamentary assistants, had hoped that a ruling today from the French Constitutional Council in a different case would boost her hopes of avoiding a possible immediate ban on running for public office.
However, today’s ruling has just dropped and it looks unlikely to have a significant impact on any sentence Le Pen may or may not receive on Monday.
Considering a case involving a local councillor handed a ban with immediate application – not suspended until the appeal is decided – the council found it constitutional. Despite Le Pen allies’ hopes, however, it did not expand its analysis to cover broader questions about the so-called ineligibility bans.
During Le Pen’s trial, the prosecution requested a €300,000 fine, five years in prison and an ineligibility sentence with immediate application, which would rule her out of the 2027 presidential elections in France.
Addressing the trial last autumn Le Pen said she was innocent. “I have absolutely no sense of having committed the slightest irregularity, or the slightest illegal act,” she said.
Four of the five parties in the Greenlandic parliament will sign a coalition agreement today, in an apparent show of unity in the face of US interest in the island, local media reported.
The agreement will be signed at 11am local time (1pm GMT, 2pm CET), with the new government in control of 23 out of 31 mandates in the new parliament.
The presumed next prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, has repeatedly rejected Trump’s plans to take control of the island, telling Sky News:
“We don’t want to be Americans. No, we don’t want to be Danes. We want to be Greenlanders, and we want our own independence in the future. … And we want to build our own country by ourselves.”
Only the most ardently pro-independence party, Naleraq, which came second in elections earlier this month will not be part of the coalition, after dropping out of talks last week.
When JD Vance and his delegation touch down at Pituffik space base in Greenland on Friday, they will be greeted by the words: “Welcome to the top of the world.”
As well as being the US’s most northerly military base – and its only one on the vast Arctic island – it is also among the world’s most isolated places.
For nine months of the year, the base (formerly known as Thule airbase) in north-western Greenland is locked in by ice, although it remains accessible by plane throughout the year. For three months there is no sunlight.
The strategically important site – about 932 miles (1,500km) from Nuuk, Greenland’s capital, 750 miles (1,207km) north of the Arctic Circle, and across Baffin Bay from Nunavut in Canada – plays an essential role in US missile detection.
Home to an upgraded early warning radar weapon system that can detect ballistic missiles, the base also monitors space for debris from decommissioned satellites and is home to the world’s most northerly deep-water port.
The visit to Pituffik, a remote ice-locked US military base in northwestern Greenland, will be closely watched by leaders in Nuuk and Copenhagen, who have aired their opposition to the trip amid ongoing threats by Donald Trump to acquire Greenland, a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark.
“It’s safe to say we would rather not have him [Vance] in Greenland,” a government source in Copenhagen said.
The mood in Copenhagen was understood to be apprehensive. On Thursday, the Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen said: “Greenland is part of the Danish kingdom. That is not going to change.”
Meanwhile Lars Løkke Rasmussen, Denmark’s minister for foreign affairs, said Vance would not be greeted by Danish politicians at Pituffik because “it has nothing to do with us”.
“This is about an American vice-president who is going to visit his own military installation in Greenland. It has nothing to do with us,” he said.
In normal times, a visit by a US vice-president would be actively sought by many allied countries as a useful show of close relations with Washington.
But these days are gone. When JD Vance touches down at Pituffik space base in Greenland in the afternoon, there will be no Danish representatives to welcome him there, and they were open about the fact that he is, in fact, not welcome there, at least not anywhere outside the US base.
But then, these are not normal times, and it is not difficult to see why Danish politicians are not excited about increasingly thinly veiled threats of US plans to take control over Greenland – even against the will of its people.
It marks a dramatic shift from the close alliance between Denmark and the US, as Copenhagen now faces what still feels like a surreal scenario of having to defend a part of their country – which repeatedly showed no interest in becoming a part of the US – from the increasingly assertive US administration.
Earlier this week, US president Donald Trump said:
“It’s an island that from a defensive posture, and even offensive posture, is something we need, especially with the world the way it is, and we’re going to have to have it.”
“So, I think we’ll go as far as we have to go. We need Greenland and the world needs us to have Greenland, including Denmark.”
These words will inevitably frame the way today’s visit will be perceived in Europe. A source in the Danish government is quoted in today’s Berlingske as worrying that Denmark could face its version of “the Crimea script,” a reference to the Russian illegal occupation of the Ukrainian territory in 2014.
“For Denmark, this is the biggest foreign policy crisis since the second world war,” Jon Rahbek Clemmensen, Head of Research at the Center for Arctic Security Studies of the Royal Danish Defence College, told TV2.
There are still many unknowns about the programme of the visit – there are only so many things you can do in one of the world’s most isolated places – but Copenhagen particularly fears that Vance could use the trip to deliver a speech furthering the US claims to Greenland. He has a form with provocative speeches in Europe, after all.
Despite earlier reports, the US vice-president could still be joined by senior officials, national security adviser Mike Waltz and energy secretary Chris Wright, highlighting the unusually high profile of the visit.
Let’s see.
But it’s perhaps not a coincidence that it’s also that today that four of the five parties in the new Greenlandic parliament – all except the most pro-independence, pro-American Naleraq – are planning to announce the formation of a new government, just hours before Vance gets to the island.
I will bring you all the key updates on this throughout the day and more stories from France, Germany, and across Europe.
It’s Friday, 28 March 2025, and this is Europe live. It’s Jakub Krupa here.
Good morning.
