WASHINGTON — Second girl Usha Vance plans a visit to Greenland, the self-governing, mineral-rich territory of American ally Denmark that President Donald Trump has advised america ought to take management over.
Vance will go away on Thursday and return Saturday, based on her workplace. Vance and one in every of her three youngsters will likely be a part of a U.S. delegation set to “go to historic websites, study Greenlandic heritage, and attend the Avannaata Qimussersu, Greenland’s nationwide dogsled race.”
The race options round 37 mushers and 444 canine and presents what Vance’s workplace described as a “outstanding show of pace, talent, and teamwork. The assertion mentioned that Vance and the delegation “are excited to witness this monumental race and have fun Greenlandic tradition and unity.”
Media shops in Greenland and Denmark reported that in her journey this week, Vance can be accompanied by Trump’s nationwide safety adviser Mike Waltz. The White Home and the Nationwide Safety Council didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
Trump had mused throughout his first time period about shopping for the world’s largest island, whilst Copenhagen, a NATO ally, insisted it wasn’t on the market.
Since returning to the White Home, Trump has repeatedly mentioned that the U.S. will come to manage Greenland whereas insisting he helps the concept for strategic nationwide safety causes — not with an eye fixed towards American expansionism.
“I believe we may have it,” Trump mentioned of Greenland shortly after starting his second time period on Jan. 20. The U.S. already has a navy base on Greenland and the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., visited it in January.
Throughout a latest Oval Workplace assembly with NATO Secretary Common Mark Rutte, Trump said “Denmark’s very far-off” from Greenland, and questioned whether or not that nation nonetheless had a proper to assert the world’s largest island as a part of its kingdom.
“A ship landed there 200 years in the past or one thing. They usually say they’ve rights to it,” Trump mentioned. “I don’t know if that’s true. I don’t suppose it’s, really.”
All 5 events in Greenland’s parliament issued a joint statement final week rejecting Trump’s remarks. Denmark has acknowledged Greenland’s proper to independence at a time of its selecting.
Past his give attention to Greenland, Trump has refused to rule out military intervention in Panama to retake that nation’s canal, mentioned that Canada should be America’s 51st state and advised that U.S. pursuits may assume management of the war-torn Gaza Strip from Israel and redevelop it as a “Riviera”-like seaside resort.
___
Related Press author Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin contributed to this report.
