JD Vance to accompany the wife to Greenland in the midst of the violent reaction

The United States Vice President JD Vance will join his wife Usha to travel to Greenland on Friday, a visit that follows Donald Trump’s threats to take care of the island.

The couple will go to the Pituffik space base to receive an informative session on Arctic security problems and meet with members of the US forces parked there, according to the White House.

Usha Vance had planned to travel to the Danish territory on a cultural visit before her husband announced her plans. Trump National Security Advisor Mike Waltz will also visit this week on a separate trip.

Officials in Greenland have fiercely criticized the visits planned as disrespectful.

Greenland, the largest island in the world, located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, has been controlled by Denmark, almost 3,000 km (1,860 miles) away, for approximately 300 years.

He records his own national matters, but decisions on foreign and defense policy are taken in Copenhagen. The United States has had a security interest and a military presence there since World War II.

The Pituffik space base, located in the northwest of Greenland, supports missile warning missions, air defense and spatial surveillance.

In a video posted on the social media platform X, Vance said there was a lot of emotion on his wife’s trip to Greenland. He joins her because “he didn’t want her to have fun alone.”

He said that the visit to the military installation was to verify the security of the island, since “many other countries have threatened Greenland, they have threatened to use their territories and river paths to threaten the United States, threaten Canada and, of course, threaten the people of Greenland.”

He added that the Trump administration wants to “revitalize the security of the people of Greenland”, and that the United States and Denmark have ignored it for “too long.”

It is not clear if Mike Waltz is still scheduled to visit. The BBC has contacted the White House to confirm.

Dr. Dwayne Ryan Menezes, founder and managing director of Polar Research and Policy Initiative, Thank Tank, based in London, criticized the visit.

He said that it is “very unusual” that a high -level delegation of US officials is visiting Greenland without being invited, especially after a national election in the country, where the parties are still in conversations to form the next government.

The interest of the United States in the security of Greenland, given its strategic importance, makes sense, he said. But he added that it is “inexplicable” for Washington DC to have adopted such an aggressive approach, especially in the light of Trump’s comments on the acquisition of the territory.

“Not respecting the people of Greenland saying that the United States will acquire it ‘in one way or another’ is useless and counterproductive as a tactic,” he added.

According to recent surveys, almost 80% of Greenlands support the independence of Denmark. But an opinion survey in January suggested that an even greater number rejected the idea of ​​becoming part of the United States.