10 January,2026 04:54 PM IST | Washington DC | mid-day online correspondent
US Vice-President JD Vance said the US administration was pressing allies to bolster security around the island. PIC/AFP
US Vice-President JD Vance on Friday urged European leaders to take the United States seriously on Greenland, describing the island as critical to global security, news agency IANS reported. He warned that the US would act if allies failed to address what he described as growing interest from "hostile adversaries".
Asked about the ongoing pushback to the idea that Greenland "could be for sale," Vance said the administration would continue to address the matter through diplomacy.
"We'll - we'll continue to deliver some of these messages in private, some of them in public," he added.
Vance highlighted upcoming diplomatic contacts involving the State Department.
"Secretary (of State Marco) Rubio, I believe, is meeting with the leaders of Denmark and Greenland next week, I want to say it is, but maybe it's the week after that," he said.
The Vice-President argued that critics were overreacting to former US President Donald Trump's statements.
"Set to the side the crazy overreactions that I've seen from the press and from certain people in Europe," he said, before outlining the administration's key points.
"What has the President said? Number one, Greenland is really important, not just to America's missile defence, but to the world's missile defence. Number two, we know that there are hostile adversaries that have shown a lot of interest in that particular territory, that particular slice of the world," Vance said.
He added that the administration was pressing allies to bolster security around the island.
"So what we're asking our European friends to do is to take the security of that landmass more seriously," Vance said.
He further emphasised, "Because if they're not, the United States is going to have to do something about it."
Vance did not specify what form US action might take, saying decisions would remain with the President.
"What that is, I'll leave that to the president as we continue to engage in diplomacy with our European friends and everybody on this particular topic," he said.
Greenland is an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark. Its Arctic location has long been considered strategically significant for early warning and defence architecture across the North Atlantic.
(With IANS inputs)
