US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he would meet Danish leaders next week, while maintaining that all options remain on the table, with diplomacy preferred.
| Photo Credit:
EVELYN HOCKSTEIN/Reuters
-The top U.S. diplomat said on Wednesday he would meet
leaders of Denmark next week but signalled no retreat from
President Donald Trump’s aim to take over Greenland, and alarmed
allies including France and Germany were working on a plan on
how to respond.
A U.S. military seizure of the mineral-rich Arctic island
from a longtime ally, Denmark, would send shock waves through
the NATO alliance and deepen the divide between Trump and
European leaders.
In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said
he would meet Danish leaders next week and that Trump retained
the option to address his objective by military means.
Still, “as a diplomat, which is what I am now, and what
we work on, we always prefer to settle it in different ways –
that included in Venezuela,” Rubio told reporters when asked if
the U.S. was willing to potentially endanger NATO with a
forcible takeover of Greenland.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said a
potential U.S. purchase of Greenland was being actively
discussed by Trump and his national security team.
“All options are always on the table for President Trump
… the president’s first option always has been diplomacy,”
Leavitt told a regular news briefing.
Earlier in the day, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot
said the subject would be raised at a meeting with the foreign
ministers of Germany and Poland later in the day.
“We want to take action, but we want to do so together with
our European partners,” he said on France Inter radio.
A German government source said separately that Germany was
“closely working together with other European countries and
Denmark on the next steps regarding Greenland”.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a senior European
official said Denmark must lead efforts to coordinate a
response, but “the Danes have yet to communicate to their
European allies what kind of concrete support they wish to
receive”.
Greenland is strategically located between Europe and
North America, making it a critical site for the U.S. ballistic
missile defence system for decades. Its mineral wealth also
aligns with Washington’s ambition to reduce reliance on China.
EUROPEANS, CANADA RALLY BEHIND GREENLAND
Leaders from major European powers and Canada have rallied
behind Greenland this week, saying the Arctic island belongs to
its people, after Trump renewed threats to seize the territory.
Johannes Koskinen, chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of
Finland’s parliament, called for the issue to be raised at NATO.
NATO allies should “address whether something needs to be
done and whether the United States should be brought into line
in the sense that it cannot disregard jointly agreed plans in
order to pursue its own power ambitions,” he said.
The next North Atlantic Council meeting is scheduled for
Thursday.
EU Council President Antonio Costa said the European Union
would support Greenland and Denmark when needed and would not
accept violations of international law no matter where they
occur.
“There is obviously a real political will given these joint
statements from political leaders,” Andreas Osthagen, research
director at the Oslo-based Fridtjof Nansen Institute, told
Reuters.
“It is about political solidarity but also about
self-preservation that all Western countries have a desire that
we should retain a principle of state sovereignty.”
TRUMP SAYS GREENLAND KEY TO U.S. SECURITY
Trump has in recent days repeated that he wants to gain
control of Greenland, an idea first voiced in 2019 during his
first presidency. He argues the island is key for U.S. military
strategy and that Denmark has not done enough to protect it.
The White House said on Tuesday Trump was discussing options
for acquiring Greenland, including potential use of the U.S.
military despite European objections.
Others in the administration said different approaches were
possible. Rubio said the goal was to buy the island from Denmark
during a classified briefing late on Monday for congressional
leaders, two sources familiar with the briefing said.
France’s Barrot suggested a U.S. military operation had been
ruled out by Washington’s top diplomat.
“I myself was on the phone with the Secretary of State
yesterday (…), he discarded the idea that what just happened
in Venezuela could happen in Greenland,” he said.
A U.S. military operation over the weekend that seized the
leader of Venezuela had already rekindled concerns that
Greenland might face a similar scenario.
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen and his
Greenlandic counterpart, Vivian Motzfeldt, requested an urgent
meeting with Rubio to discuss the situation.
“We would like to add some nuance to the conversation,”
Rasmussen wrote in a social media post. “The shouting match must
be replaced by a more sensible dialogue. Now.”
Greenland continues to reject annexation by the U.S., said
Aaja Chemnitz, a Greenlandic member of the Danish parliament.
“Greenland has never been for sale and never will be for
sale,” she told Reuters, adding that U.S. officials not ruling
out a military intervention was “completely appalling”.
DENMARK DISPUTES RUSSIAN, CHINESE PRESENCE
The world’s largest island but with a population of just
57,000, Greenland is not an independent member of NATO but is
covered by Denmark’s membership of the Western alliance.
Trump has repeatedly said Russian and Chinese vessels are
stalking waters around Greenland, which Denmark disputes.
“The image that’s being painted of Russian and Chinese ships
right inside the Nuuk fjord and massive Chinese investments
being made is not correct,” Rasmussen said.
Vessel tracking data from MarineTraffic and LSEG show no
presence of Chinese or Russian ships near Greenland.
Published on January 8, 2026
