Greenland's government will join a meeting between United States secretary of state Marco Rubio and Danish officials next week, following renewed US claims on the Arctic island, its foreign minister said.
"Of course, we will take part. We're the ones who requested a meeting," Vivian Motzfeldt told Danish public broadcaster DR on Wednesday after Rubio confirmed the meeting would take place.
US President Donald Trump has "actively discussed" buying Greenland with his team, the White House said on Wednesday, adding he preferred diplomacy but would not rule out military action.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said: "All options are always on the table for President Trump."
In Washington, Rubio said he would meet Danish leaders next week and that Trump retained the option to address his objective by military means.
"As a diplomat, which is what I am now, and what we work on, we always prefer to settle it in different ways — that included in Venezuela," Rubio told reporters when asked if the US was willing to potentially endanger NATO with a forcible takeover of Greenland.
Denmark's foreign minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen had said earlier this week that a meeting with the US' top diplomat should "clear up certain misunderstandings".
He has contested Trump's claim that Denmark has neglected security in the Arctic.
In the last year, Denmark has invested heavily in security, allocating some 90 billion kroner ($21 billion).
Motzfeldt said she hoped the meeting "will lead to a normalisation of our relations" with the US.
"Greenland needs the United States and the United States needs Greenland when it comes to security in the Arctic," she said.
Trump has, in recent days, repeated his claim to want to gain control of Greenland, an idea first voiced in 2019 during his first presidency.
He argues the island is key to US military strategy and that Denmark has not done enough to protect it.
Greenland is strategically located between Europe and North America, making it a critical site for a US ballistic missile defence system for decades.
Its mineral wealth also aligns with the US' mbition to reduce reliance on China.
International response
Leaders from major European powers and Canada have rallied behind Greenland this week, saying the Arctic island belongs to its people.
Johannes Koskinen, chair of Finland's parliament's foreign affairs committee, called for the issue to be raised at NATO.
NATO allies should "address whether something needs to be done and whether the United States should be brought into line in the sense that it cannot disregard jointly agreed plans in order to pursue its own power ambitions," he said.
The next North Atlantic Council meeting is scheduled for Thursday.
French foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot said the subject would be raised at a meeting with the foreign ministers of Germany and Poland.
"We want to take action, but we want to do so together with our European partners," he said on France Inter radio.
A German government source said separately Germany was "closely working together with other European countries and Denmark on the next steps regarding Greenland".
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a senior European official said Denmark must lead efforts to coordinate a response, but "the Danes have yet to communicate to their European allies what kind of concrete support they wish to receive".
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