Jan. 14 (UPI) -- U.S. Vice President JD Vance was set to meet at the White House on Wednesday with the foreign ministers of Greenland and Denmark and their U.S. counterpart, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, to discuss the future of Greenland.
The talks come amid a hardening of positions of Washington and in Copenhagen and Nuuk as NATO countries in Europe scramble to put together a credible security package to close the gaping hole in Greenland's defense cited by U.S. President Donald Trump as the reason the United States needs to take over the island.
Ahead of the White House meeting, Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said Tuesday the territory wanted to remain part of Denmark.
"If we have to choose between the United States and Denmark here and now, we choose Denmark. We choose NATO, the Kingdom of Denmark and the European Union," prompting Trump to retort that his stance would be a major problem.
"Well that's their problem. I disagree with him. I don't know who he [Nielsen] is. Don't know anything about him, but that's going to be a big problem for him," said Trump.
