Usha Vance, Second Lady and US Vice President JD Vance‘s wife, will be leading a high-profile delegation to Greenland, the White House announced on Sunday. The delegation will also have security adviser Mike Waltz and Energy Secretary Chris Wright.
Waltz and Wright are planning to visit the Pituffik space base, which is a US military base in Greenland. According to the White House, they will receive briefings from US service members stationed there. After that, they will join Vance to visit historical sites and attend the national dogsled race.
Brian Hughes, a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, mentioned that the US team believes this visit will help strengthen partnerships that honor Greenland’s right to make its own decisions and promote economic cooperation, reported Reuters.
Hughes said that this visit is to learn about Greenland’s history, their culture and people and to attend a dogsled race that the United States is “proud to sponsor”, reported Reuters.
The visit comes amid the row over Trump‘s idea of US taking over Greenland. Greenland’s strategic position and valuable mineral resources could be beneficial to the US, especially since it lies on the shortest route from Europe to North America, which is important for the US ballistic missile warning system.
However, both the governments of Greenland and Denmark have opposed this idea. The Greenland government, which is currently in a caretaker phase after a general election on March 11, has not responded to requests for comments, reported Reuters. The party that won the election favors a gradual move toward independence from Denmark.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen responded to the news of the visit, stating that Denmark takes the matter seriously. She said that Denmark is open to cooperation with the US, but it must be based on respect for Greenland’s sovereignty.
She added that discussions about Greenland’s future with the US would be closely coordinated with both the Danish government and the future Greenlandic government.
