A meeting between the US and Denmark, and Greenland ended in disagreement.

19:11, Wed, Jan 14, 2026 Updated: 19:35, Wed, Jan 14, 2026

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Greenland (Image: Getty)

Greenland has warned Donald Trump "you cannot own us" as a meeting between Denmark, the US and the island territory ends in disagreement.

Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said that the prospect of the US accquiring Greenland is "absolutely not necessary," the BBC reported. Today US Vice-President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio held a meeting with the Danish and Greenlandic foreign ministers to discuss the future of the Arctic island.

Quoted by the BBC, Rasmussen said it is clear the Trump has the wish of "conquering" Greenland, but that he believes the meeting has managed to "change the American position". "We made it very, very clear that this is not in the interest of Greenland," he also said.

The Danish foreign minister said "fundamental disagreement" remains after "frank" White House talks over Greenland, while Denmark will beef up its military presence in Greenland “from today”, the defence ministry also said today, just before talks were to start in Washington DC.

Rasmussen, in a joint news conference with the Greenland foreign minister, says it is "absolutely not necessary" for US to acquire the Arctic territory, and that there is no "instant threat" from Russia, the BBC also reported.

Earlier this week, it was said President Trump could launch meaningful US action to annex Greenland within "weeks or months". Thomas Dans, Mr Trump's Arctic commissioner, said the President wants to move at "high speed" on the issue and that "things could move on an express basis". He told USA Today: "This is a train route with multiple stops. Things could move on an express basis, skip the local stops and go direct to the main station. That's where President Trump wants to move it − at high speed."

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Yesterday (January 13) Greenland’s energy minister Naaja Nathanielsen told a press conference in Westminster on Tuesday that US military action would represent "the breakdown of the rule of law" and leave Western allies having to "figure out what is this new world order about".

She said: "We feel that the rhetoric is offensive, as we have said many times before, but also bewildering because we have done nothing but support the notion that Greenland is a part of the American national self-interest." On Monday, a member of Donald Trump’s Republican Party introduced legislation to annex Greenland as the 51st US state. The US President claimed over the weekend that he needed to "take Greenland" to prevent Russia or China from doing so.