Vice President JD Vance said Thursday that European governments should pay close attention to President Donald Trump’s statements about Greenland, as the White House escalates its rhetoric toward the Danish-controlled Arctic territory.

Speaking at a White House briefing, Vance faulted Denmark and other European allies for what he described as insufficient efforts to safeguard Greenland, a strategically important region he said is increasingly drawing interest from 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 reporters when asked about the administration’s posture toward Greenland.

His remarks came amid heightened diplomatic activity across Europe after the White House said earlier this week that Trump wants to buy Greenland and declined to rule out the use of military force. European capitals have been scrambling to coordinate a response to the statements.

Vance pointed specifically to Trump’s argument that the United States requires Greenland for national security reasons, including “missile defense,” citing growing military activity by Moscow and Beijing in the region as Arctic ice recedes.

“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,” Vance said.

“What that is, I’ll leave that to the president as we continue to engage in diplomacy with our European friends and everybody on this particular topic,” he added.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is scheduled to meet with officials from Denmark and Greenland next week, as tensions continue to rise.

Trump has spoken for years about acquiring Greenland, but his language has intensified following last week’s U.S. military operation that removed Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro from power.

The comments have angered Denmark, a founding member of NATO and a long-standing American ally, while setting off alarm across Europe. Any invasion of Greenland would put the United States in direct conflict with a fellow NATO country and could fracture the alliance’s mutual defense framework.

European leaders have launched a wave of diplomatic efforts aimed at defusing the situation, seeking to prevent a crisis while also avoiding a direct clash with Trump, who is approaching the end of his first year back in office.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer discussed Greenland during a call with Trump on Wednesday, “set out his position on Greenland,” and followed up with another call on Thursday in which he said more could be done to protect the “high Arctic” from Russian influence, according to Downing Street.

Vance was also meeting in Washington with British Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy for talks primarily focused on the war in Ukraine, though Greenland was expected to be part of the broader discussion.

European nations have publicly backed Denmark, with several leaders joining Copenhagen in a joint statement affirming that decisions about Greenland’s future rest solely with Denmark and Greenland.

French President Emmanuel Macron went further, warning Thursday that the United States was “turning away” from its allies in what marked some of his sharpest criticism yet of Trump’s approach.

Macron argued that “global governance” was essential at a moment when, he said, “every day people wonder whether Greenland is going to be invaded.”

Vance has previously taken a hard line on Europe’s defense posture, writing in a leaked group chat with senior U.S. officials last year that he hated “bailing out” the continent.

That sentiment was echoed in the Trump administration’s national security strategy released in December, which sharply criticized Europe, warning of “civilisational erasure” driven by migration and urging the United States to support “cultivating resistance” among right-wing political movements.

{Matzav.com}

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