WASHINGTON — Denmark's top diplomat said he had a "frank" and "constructive" discussion with U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, but admitted that the allied nations have a "fundamental disagreement" about the future of Greenland that they were unable to clear up.
Instead, officials decided to form a high-level working group to determine how to move forward, with the first meeting expected to take place in a "matter of weeks," Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said at a news conference in Washington.
“We didn’t manage to change the American position," Rasmussen said of President Donald Trump's bid to acquire the self-governing island. "It’s clear that the president has this wish of conquering over Greenland. We made it very, very clear that this is not in the interest of the kingdom.”
Rasmussen was joined by Greenland Minister of Foreign Affairs Vivian Motzfeldt at the White House on Jan. 14 for a meeting that was requested by the Danes amid renewed threats from Trump to annex the Danish territory.
Trump said, during a Jan. 9 meeting with oil executives, that "we are going to do something on Greenland whether they like it or not," and added it could happen "the easy way" or "the hard way," as his administration refused to rule out military action.
