US President Donald Trump is strengthening his claims over Greenland, as his deputy JD Vance prepares for a last-minute visit this week to the frozen island.
"America needs to let them know that we need Greenland for international security and defense. We need it. We have to have it," Trump said in an interview with Vince Coglianese on Wednesday.
"It's an island that, from a defensive and even offensive perspective, is something that we need... When you see ships passing by their shores by the hundreds, it's a busy place," the US President explained further.
Trump has floated the idea of buying Greenland since his first term, but has focused more on it during his second administration. If the United States takes control of this autonomous Danish territory, it would gain access to key transportation corridors and untapped sources of rare minerals and energy, which could change the structure of global trade.
The president told Coglianese that he wasn't sure if Greenlanders were ready to become citizens of the United States.
"But I think we have to do it and convince them, because we have to have that land. It's not possible to properly defend a large part of this world - not just the United States - without it. So we have to have it, and I think we will have it," Trump further declared.
The statement comes as top Trump administration officials plan a visit to the island. The second lady, Usha Vance, and other top officials were originally scheduled to go to Greenland for a dog sled race — a visit that Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen called “unacceptable pressure” on Greenland to hand over its territory to the United States.
"This is not a visit that is about what Greenland needs or wants. It is unacceptable pressure that is being put on Greenland and Denmark in this situation. And it is pressure that we will resist," Frederiksen said on Monday.
Meanwhile, JD Vance said Tuesday he would join his wife and others on the trip - visiting a military base instead of the race, becoming the highest-ranking US official to visit the island, while Trump's eldest son went there earlier this year.
Danish officials cautiously welcomed the itinerary, despite the additional importance that Vance's own presence gives to the visit.
"I think it is a much wiser decision to visit the military base than to interfere in what is happening in Greenlandic politics, in a situation where a government has not yet been formed," said Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen. (A2 Televizion)
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