Greenland’s foreign minister, Vivian Motzfeldt, said diplomatic talks with the United States on Saturday were “positive,” but stressed the territory’s future remains uncertain as President Donald Trump continues to press publicly for U.S. ownership on national security grounds.
Speaking at a joint news conference in Nuuk with Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen and Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand — who opened a new Canadian consulate in Nuuk on Friday — Motzfeldt said progress had been made but cautioned that a resolution could be some time away. “We are not where we want to be yet,” she said, noting “there is going to be a long track, so where we are going to land at the end, it’s too early to say.”
Rasmussen echoed that assessment, saying, “We are not out of the crisis, and we do not have a solution yet,” while noting the situation was “in a much better position now, compared to a few weeks ago.” He referred to past incidents without elaboration and told reporters “there are no threats on the table, there is no trade war with Europe,” adding that all parties had agreed to pursue a “normal diplomatic” process to resolve the impasse.
Trump first floated buying Greenland from Denmark during his first term and, according to Motzfeldt and Rasmussen, has renewed his public push since returning to the White House in January 2025. Although a 1951 treaty already allows U.S. forces to establish and operate bases in Greenland, Trump has argued that the U.S. can only fully protect the island if it owns it, calling ownership a “psychologically important” step.
The issue reached an international peak on Jan. 21, when Trump used a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos to argue for U.S. ownership of Greenland; he later stepped back from explicit threats of military action. After strong pushback from EU and NATO allies, Trump threatened heavy tariffs but has since downplayed that threat, leaving allies cautious about his next moves.
Current talks flow from a “framework” agreement Trump reached with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte after the tariff episode, a plan that would give the U.S. a greater role in Arctic security. That arrangement produced a Denmark-Greenland-U.S. working group to address American security concerns, amid U.S. claims that China and Russia could exploit melting Arctic ice and new shipping lanes — an assessment Denmark and other NATO members dispute.
Rasmussen said initial meetings of the working group have already taken place and more are planned, while Motzfeldt welcomed direct dialogue with the U.S. Both Denmark and Greenland say they share U.S. security worries but insist Greenland’s future must be decided by Greenlanders. They have described Greenland’s sovereignty and territorial integrity as absolute “red lines” not open for negotiation, a position they said was made clear to their American counterparts. Rasmussen said he believed it was possible “to find a solution while at the same time respecting those red lines,” but declined to provide further details on whether he thought the U.S. was fully respecting that stance.