It's crunch time. The US Vice President, JD Vance, is hosting the Danish and Greenlandic foreign ministers, as well as their US counterpart, Marco Rubio, in the White House on Wednesday.
The focus of the talks: the future of the world's biggest island, Greenland.
There is a large digital news ticker tape running above the snow-covered shopping mall in the island's capital, Nuuk. You don't have to speak Greenlandic to understand the words Trump, Greenland and sovereignty that appear over and over again, in stark red letters.
Donald Trump says he wants this country and he'll take it the easy way or the hard way. After his recent controversial military action in Venezuela, people in Greenland are taking him at his word.
The anxious countdown to the Washington meeting has been going on for days. Passers-by tell me it feels like years.
I would like to encourage (Donald Trump) to use both his ears wisely, to listen more and to speak less. We are not for sale. Our country is not for sale, Amelie Zeeb said, removing her chunky mittens, traditionally made here with sealskin and known as pualuuk, in order to wave her hands for emphasis.
My hope is for our country to be independent and well-managed and not be bought, said Inuit writer and musician, Sivnîssoq Rask.
While Maria, with her seven-week-old baby, wrapped snugly inside her winter coat, told me, I worry for the future of my young family. We don't want all this attention here!
But international attention on Greenland is not going to disappear anytime soon. Far more hangs in the balance than the fate of this island alone.
The tussle over Greenland pits Nato nations Denmark and the US against one another. Greenland is a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark. The Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen has warned that if the US takes control of the island by force, that will be the end of the transatlantic defence alliance that Europe has relied on for security for decades.
It will also be another damaging blow to US-European relations, already badly bruised since Donald Trump's return to the White House. The potential ramifications of a fallout over Greenland are huge – but it is unclear how Washington intends to handle Wednesday's meeting. Will the spirit be one of compromise or confrontation?
President Trump insists he needs Greenland for national security. If the US doesn't take Greenland, then China or Russia will, he says.
Mindful of this, major European powers, who have vocally supported Danish sovereignty over Greenland, have also been scrambling to come up with military proposals to boost Nato's presence around the island and in the Arctic more broadly.
The discussions already include the possible deployment of soldiers, warships, aircraft, submarines and anti-drone capabilities in the region, with proposals for a maritime Nato Arctic Sentry to bolster defences against perceived threats from Russia and China.
Greenland's Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen stated that the island now faces a geopolitical crisis. Many Greenlanders express a desire for independence from Denmark but strongly reject any notion of becoming part of the United States.
As the summit approaches, the future of Greenland's sovereignty remains uncertain, and many are left asking: what will happen next?
The focus of the talks: the future of the world's biggest island, Greenland.
There is a large digital news ticker tape running above the snow-covered shopping mall in the island's capital, Nuuk. You don't have to speak Greenlandic to understand the words Trump, Greenland and sovereignty that appear over and over again, in stark red letters.
Donald Trump says he wants this country and he'll take it the easy way or the hard way. After his recent controversial military action in Venezuela, people in Greenland are taking him at his word.
The anxious countdown to the Washington meeting has been going on for days. Passers-by tell me it feels like years.
I would like to encourage (Donald Trump) to use both his ears wisely, to listen more and to speak less. We are not for sale. Our country is not for sale, Amelie Zeeb said, removing her chunky mittens, traditionally made here with sealskin and known as pualuuk, in order to wave her hands for emphasis.
My hope is for our country to be independent and well-managed and not be bought, said Inuit writer and musician, Sivnîssoq Rask.
While Maria, with her seven-week-old baby, wrapped snugly inside her winter coat, told me, I worry for the future of my young family. We don't want all this attention here!
But international attention on Greenland is not going to disappear anytime soon. Far more hangs in the balance than the fate of this island alone.
The tussle over Greenland pits Nato nations Denmark and the US against one another. Greenland is a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark. The Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen has warned that if the US takes control of the island by force, that will be the end of the transatlantic defence alliance that Europe has relied on for security for decades.
It will also be another damaging blow to US-European relations, already badly bruised since Donald Trump's return to the White House. The potential ramifications of a fallout over Greenland are huge – but it is unclear how Washington intends to handle Wednesday's meeting. Will the spirit be one of compromise or confrontation?
President Trump insists he needs Greenland for national security. If the US doesn't take Greenland, then China or Russia will, he says.
Mindful of this, major European powers, who have vocally supported Danish sovereignty over Greenland, have also been scrambling to come up with military proposals to boost Nato's presence around the island and in the Arctic more broadly.
The discussions already include the possible deployment of soldiers, warships, aircraft, submarines and anti-drone capabilities in the region, with proposals for a maritime Nato Arctic Sentry to bolster defences against perceived threats from Russia and China.
Greenland's Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen stated that the island now faces a geopolitical crisis. Many Greenlanders express a desire for independence from Denmark but strongly reject any notion of becoming part of the United States.
As the summit approaches, the future of Greenland's sovereignty remains uncertain, and many are left asking: what will happen next?
