WASHINGTON, United States (AFP)—The top Danish and Greenlandic diplomats were to visit the White House on Wednesday for high-stakes talks on Greenland, which US President Donald Trump has vowed to seize from the longtime ally.

Hours before the meeting was due to start, Danish Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen sought to ease US concerns about security in Greenland, telling AFP Denmark was boosting its military presence there and was in talks with allies on “an increased NATO presence in the Arctic.”

Trump has repeatedly threatened to take over the vast, strategic and sparsely populated Arctic island, and he has sounded emboldened since ordering a deadly January 3 attack in Venezuela that removed its president.

Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen and his Greenlandic counterpart sought the talks with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The meeting will take place at the White House, after Vice President JD Vance requested to join.

Lokke said he was hoping to “clear up certain misunderstandings.” But it remains to be seen if the Trump administration also sees a misunderstanding and if it wants to climb down.

Trump, when asked Tuesday about Greenland’s leader saying that the island prefers to remain an autonomous territory of Denmark, said: “Well that’s their problem.”

“Don’t know anything about him, but that’s going to be a big problem for him,” Trump said.

Trump said on Friday that he wanted Greenland “whether they like it or not” and “if we don’t do it the easy way, we’re going to do it the hard way.”

While an agreement with Denmark allows the United States to station as many soldiers as it wants on Greenland, Trump has doubled down on US ownership, telling reporters on Sunday that “we’re talking about acquiring not leasing.”

The former real estate developer told The New York Times that ownership “is psychologically needed for success” and “gives you things and elements that you can’t get from just signing a document.”

According to Trump, the United States needs Greenland due to the threat of a takeover by Russia or China.

The two rival powers have both stepped up activity in the Arctic, where ice is melting due to climate change, but neither claims Greenland.

Trump has spoken of the need for the United States to grow.

Incorporating Greenland, which has 57,000 people, would catapult the United States past China and Canada to be the world’s second largest country in land mass after Russia.

– Is cooperation possible? –

Vance in March paid an uninvited visit to Greenland. He stayed only at Pituffik, the longstanding US base on the island, and did not mingle with local residents.

Vance is known for his hard edge, which was on display when he berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky publicly during a White House meeting in February.

It has not been announced if the Greenland meeting will be open to the press.

“If the US continues with, ‘We have to have Greenland at all cost,’ it could be a very short meeting,” said Penny Naas, a senior vice president at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, a Washington think tank.

“If there is a slight nuance to it, it could lead to a different conversation,” she said.

Greenland’s government and Denmark have been firm against Trump’s designs.

“One thing must be clear to everyone: Greenland does not want to be owned by the United States. Greenland does not want to be governed by the United States. Greenland does not want to be part of the United States,” Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said at a press conference ahead of the White House talks.

He was speaking alongside Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, who said it had not been easy to stand up to “completely unacceptable pressure from our closest ally.”

Denmark has rejected US claims it is not protecting Greenland from Russia and China, recalling that it has invested almost 90 billion kroner ($14 billion) to beef up its military presence in the Arctic.

Denmark is a founding member of NATO and its military joined the United States in the wars in Afghanistan and, controversially, Iraq.

Shortly after the White House talks, a senior delegation from the US Congress — mostly Democrats, but with one Republican — will visit Copenhagen to offer solidarity.

“President Trump’s continued threats toward Greenland are unnecessary and would only weaken our NATO alliance,” said Dick Durbin, the number-two Senate Democrat.

France meanwhile announced that it would open a consulate on Greenland on February 6.