US Vice President JD Vance on Thursday accused Denmark and the rest of Europe of failing to protect Greenland from the ambitions of Russia and China.
"I guess my advice to European leaders and anybody else would be to take the president of the United States seriously," Vance told journalists at the White House when asked about Greenland, as quoted by Deutsche Welle.
President Donald Trump has renewed his push to acquire Greenland in recent days. Earlier this week, the White House said that Trump is “discussing a range of options" to acquire Greenland, emphasizing that the use of the US military is not being ruled out.
Vance urged European governments to respond to Trump’s insistence that the United States needs the island for “missile defense."
“So what we're asking our European friends to do is to take the security of that land mass more seriously, because if they're not, the United States is going to have to do something about it," he said.
The United States is party to a 1951 treaty allowing it to establish military bases in Greenland with Denmark’s consent. Under that agreement, the US operates the Pituffik Space Base.
In a New York Times interview published Thursday, Trump said he wants the United States to own Greenland rather than rely on a long‑standing treaty that already grants wide latitude for military use.
"I think that ownership gives you a thing that you can't do with, you're talking about a lease or a treaty. Ownership gives you things and elements that you can't get from just signing a document," Trump told the newspaper.
On Thursday, Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen told broadcaster DR that talks with Washington are an opportunity for “the dialogue that is needed" regarding Greenland.
Earlier this week, the UK and its European allies issued a joint statement pledging to “not stop defending" Greenland’s territorial integrity - a message widely interpreted as directed at the United States.