Here’s what to watch as Trump’s team prepares for the Denmark meeting

The Trump administration is preparing high level meeting will try to discuss with Danish officials next week how the US can claim the world’s largest island.

It’s in the White House is often said and then about taking control of Greenland weekend military operation To oust Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Sound the alarm in Europe About Washington’s territorial ambitions.

President Donald TrumpGreenland has long wanted to be part of the United States rich in minerals and a sparsely populated island an integral part of national security and he said he was “very serious” about trying to get it.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has since called Trump “stop threats“, and the leader of Greenland described the notion of US control of the territory as a “fantasy”.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said On Wednesday, he said he intends to meet with senior officials next week to discuss the situation. This follows a request by Danish Foreign Minister Lokke Rasmussen and his Greenlandic counterpart Vivian Motsfeldt.

CNBC looks at four key issues ahead of the meeting.

Speaking Wednesday, a reporter asked Rubio if he would rule out the option of using American troops to occupy Greenland.

“I’m not here to talk about Denmark or military intervention,” Rubio said saidbefore reiterating plans to meet with Danish officials next week. “We’ll talk to them then, but I won’t add anything to it today.”

His comments came as the White House confirmed that Trump and his national security team were “actively” discussing a possible offer to buy Greenland – and that while diplomacy is always the first option, all options, including military force, remain on the table.

Trump before searched for Buy Greenland in 2019 during his first term as US president, just tell the island would not sell.

US military action in Greenland provoked a strong response from Denmark’s Frederiksen.

“I think the president of the United States should be taken seriously when he says he wants Greenland,” Frederiksen told Danish TV2 on Monday, according to a CNBC translation.

“But I also want to say that if the United States chooses to launch a military attack on another NATO country, then everything will stop. That is, including our NATO and thus the security that has been provided since the end of the Second World War,” he added.

Leading lawmakers from both the Republican and Democratic parties have rejected the idea of ​​using military force to occupy Greenland.

European leaders, previously reluctant to engage in megaphone diplomacy in defense of Greenland, sticky changed at the beginning of the week.

“The Kingdom of Denmark, including Greenland, is part of NATO,” said a joint letter released by several European leaders on Tuesday.

“Greenland belongs to its people. It belongs to Denmark and Greenland, and they will solve the problems related to Denmark and Greenland,” they added.

Rasmus Sinding Søndergaard, a senior fellow at the Department of Foreign Policy and Diplomacy at the Danish Institute for International Studies, said diplomatic relations should be a key focus for European policymakers when they meet with Rubio next week.

Other avenues European lawmakers are considering include further assertive policy statements, lobbying U.S. officials who do not want to see any military action in Greenland, and the threat of possible economic retaliation, Sondergaard said.

However, he acknowledged that there could be limitations for Europe in a worst-case scenario where the US seeks to seize Greenland by force, citing other European security concerns, notably a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“Greenland is an area that’s not easily defensible militarily. There’s very little infrastructure and it’s a very large island, so the idea of ​​having any sort of military defense is not something we’re looking at here,” Søndergaard told CNBC.Early European edition“on Thursday.

Surveys have previously shown that the inhabitants of Greenland overwhelmingly against Controlled by the US, the vast majority support independence from Denmark.

Tony Sage, CEO of Critical Metals, which is developing one of the world’s largest rare earth reserves in southern Greenland, says one overlooked aspect of the situation is that most Greenlanders are pro-independence.

“I think Greenland has a lot of experience in the last couple of years, but our partner, who has been there for 20 years, knows people very well. They are very persistent and they want independence,” Sage told CNBC.China connection“on Thursday.

“So I believe they will go for independence when they announce their referendum, and Denmark and the US will really have to deal with the situation,” he continued. “If they really go ahead with the referendum, who will be the biggest beneficiary of that independence.”

Greenland, a self-governing Danish territory of about 57,000 people, gained greater autonomy in its own affairs in 2009 through the Self-Government Act, although Denmark remains responsible for the island’s foreign and defense policy.

This act also gave the island the right to hold an independence referendum. Most of Greenland’s political parties support independence, but they are divided on the pace of achieving it.

Again focusing on the vast and sparsely populated Arctic island, Trump said Russia and China threaten US security in Greenland.

“It’s very strategic,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday. Right now Greenland is being invaded by Russian and Chinese ships, and we need Greenland from a national security perspective.

However, while experts questioned Trump’s assertion that Greenland should be taken on national security grounds, European leaders said Arctic security is a goal they must collectively achieve.

Marion Messmer, director of the International Security Program at the Chatham House think tank in London, acknowledged that it is true to say that both Russia and China have increased their military activity in the Arctic in recent years, and that if Moscow fires missiles at the United States, they may fly over Greenland.

“However, it is not clear why Washington needs full control of Greenland to protect itself,” Messmer said said in a written analysis published Tuesday.

He cited the U.S. presence at the Pituffick space base, as well as a decades-old defense agreement with Denmark that allows Washington to continue using it.