The TOI Correspondent from Washington: Red lights are flashing over Greenland and much of Europe after the United States deployed its Indian-American Second Lady Usha Chilukuri Vance for further incursion into the world’s largest island that President Trump wants to take over “one way or the other,” amid protests from Denmark, which called the move “aggressive.”
A White House announcement about Usha Vance’s upcoming visit on Thursday was innocuous enough, saying she will travel to Greenland with her son and a United States delegation “to visit historical sites, learn about Greenlandic heritage, and attend the Avannaata Qimussersu, Greenland’s national dogsled race.”
In a video she posted about the trip starting Thursday, Usha Vance too said the visit would “celebrate the long history of cooperation and mutual respect between the US and Greenland,” adding, “I hope that our relationship will only grow stronger in the coming years.”
But developments surrounding the trip, including an advance party of National Security Advisor Michael Waltz and energy secretary Chris Wright who will precede her visit, along with the volcanic reaction from Copenhagen, left little doubt that President Trump is pushing ahead with his plans to seize the autonomous territory that is constitutionally a park of Denmark.
Vice-president JD Vance himself set the stage for his wife’s visit with a belligerent interview on Fox News in which he accused Denmark of “not doing its job” (of protecting US strategic interest in the Arctic) and not being a “good ally.”
“If that means we need to take more territorial interest in Greenland, that is what President Trump is going to do. Because he doesn’t care about what the Europeans scream at us,” the US vice-president warned bluntly.
And scream the Europeans did, with Greenland’s Prime Minister Mute Egede voicing more than just concern. “We are now at a level where it can in no way be characterized as a harmless visit from a politician’s wife,” he told a local newspaper, asking, “What is the national security adviser doing in Greenland? The only purpose is to demonstrate power over us.”
“He is Trump’s confidential and closest advisor, and his presence in Greenland alone will certainly make the Americans believe in Trump’s mission, and the pressure will increase after the visit,” he surmised. Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Copenhagen takes the Vance-Waltz visit “very seriously” and it “cannot be seen in isolation from the public statements that have been made.”
Trump told a Joint Session of Congress earlier this month that US would assume control of Greenland “one way or the other,” giving an official imprimatur to what few people took seriously when he first floated the idea. He sent his son Donald Trump Jr on an exploratory trip in early January even before he was inaugurated for a second term.
Danes and Greenlanders played down that trip calling it a private visit, but the situation has gotten so hot that the ice-cool nation-state — Greenland is icy and Iceland is green it is said — are now apoplectic, accusing other European nations of hiding and only “whispering” their support for the besieged entities.
Even many Americans are aghast. “Denmark has been a great ally. They’ve served with us in the Middle East. They’ve been key contributors to Ukraine. Greenland is also our ally. We have a great base there and they’re willing to partner more. Let’s be a better ally and not a bully in our own right,” Don Bacon, a Republican Congressman who served in the US airbase in Ramstein, Germany said.
The foreign visit will be Usha Vance second after her diplomatic debut earlier this month when she led the US delegation to Italy for the Special Olympics World Winter Games. In a brief 37-second video she posted on the Greenland visit, she said she had been reading about Greenland and its national dogsled race with her children, and she’s “amazed by the incredible skill and teamwork that it takes to participate in this race.”
The White House said she will be accompanied by her son, but it wasn’t clear which of the two Ewan (7) or Vivek (5), would go with her. The Vances also have a daughter Mirabel (2).
