The second lady Usha Vance will travel to Greenland this week, the White House announced Sunday, becoming the last US official to visit the Danish territory as President Donald Trump increases the calls to US property.
The Secretary of Energy, Chris Wright, and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz will join Vance, the vice president’s wife, as part of the United States delegation, two sources of administration confirmed NBC News.
Vance, who is taking one of his two children, will visit historical sites, will learn about the heritage of Greenland and will attend a national dog race, said the White House. The trip will begin on Thursday.
The officials will embark on the trip while Trump sharpens his proposal of the year to take care of Greenland, an island rich in minerals that houses an American military base in a region of growing geopolitical importance.
Vance said in a video on Sunday that his visit will double as an effort to celebrate and strengthen “the long history of mutual respect and cooperation between” United States and Greenland.
The New York Times first reported Vance’s trip.
The visit of the United States delegation has caused the anger of the extrovert prime minister of Greenland, Múte B. Egdee, who questioned whether the trip was a sample of force aimed at intimidating local leaders.
“Now we are at a level in which in no way can we be characterized as a harmless visit of a politician,” Egede told the National newspaper Sermitsiaq on Sunday. “What is the security advisor in Greenland? The only purpose is to show a demonstration of power for us, and the signal should not be misunderstood.”
The representatives of the White House and the Department of Energy did not immediately respond to the requests for comments.
Trump raised the idea of buying Greenland during his first term in office, but recently he has become more aggressive when making the field. He has called the property of Greenland “an absolute need” and has refused to rule out the use of military force to acquire it.
“We need Greenland for national security. One way or another we will obtain it,” he told a joint session of Congress this month.
He offered a similar logic during an Oval office meeting with NATO general secretary Mark Rutte this month, when he suggested that the military alliance could have to help its effort to attach the territory.
“We have many of our favorite players who navigate the coast, and we have to be careful,” Trump said. “I think that is why NATO could be, to have to get involved in a way, because we really need Greenland for national security.”
Greenland is a semi -autonomous territory of Denmark, which is a member of NATO.
Greenland and Danish leaders have constantly rejected Trump’s proposal.
In January, Donald Trump Jr., accompanied by right -wing influencer Charlie Kirk, traveled to Greenland for a visit to his father characterized by supporting an “agreement that must happen.”
