'Unwanted visit: You can hardly welcome the US VP with open arms' amid Trump's threats of annexation

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00:00For more on this story, we have Klaus Dodds in London, Professor of Geopolitics at Royal

00:05Holloway and author of Border Wars. Klaus, JD Vance is set to solely now visit a US military

00:13base in Greenland, a trip that was cut back from its original plan. What makes this visit

00:18so controversial?

00:19Yeah, no, it's a really important visit in the sense of it's an unwanted visit. In the

00:28case of the people of Greenland and the government agreement, and it's worth just putting into

00:33context, remember that Donald Trump Jr. visited earlier this year and stood quite provocatively

00:39in Nuuk in front of the statue of Hans Egde, the first colonist of Greenland on behalf

00:46of the Kingdom of Denmark. And this visit initially, as the report earlier said, was

00:51supposed to be part of a kind of cultural offensive, you know, trying to use a little

00:56bit of American soft power, but it's backfired spectacularly. And you can hardly welcome

01:02the vice president with open arms when the president continues to make the comments that

01:07he does about annexing Greenland.

01:11And what has the local reaction to this visit been? Should we expect any hostilities from

01:17locals towards JD Vance and the second lady?

01:21Well, the destination of the visit is very deliberate now. So by going to Bidufik space

01:28station, which used to be called Thule Air Base, what they've done is they've taken the

01:33risk factor out of the visit. So they're basically going to an American station. They're not

01:39going to interact with Greenlandic people, so they're not going to be confronted with

01:44protest signs or anything like that. And whether Greenlandic people or the government of

01:50Denmark or Greenland like it or not, the American security presence has been really

01:55important. And the base itself, it's worth stressing, employs both Danish and Greenlandic

02:02people as well as servicing 200 odd troops and military personnel, American, that are

02:08stationed there as well. So it's got a very different dynamic, should we say, to nuke

02:13for capital.

02:14And how seriously should we take Donald Trump's recent threat of taking Greenland?

02:21I think we should take it seriously. I mean, in the sense of Donald Trump, since Christmas

02:25day last year, has spoken about in one form or another, annexing Greenland, annexing Canada,

02:33taking control of the Panama Canal. And he's also used various justifications, national

02:40security, economic security, international security, Denmark's being a bad guardian and

02:46so on and so forth. He is absolutely adamant that America needs this for hemispheric

02:51security, which includes resources. He also wants to stop China ever establishing a

02:57foothold in Greenland.

03:00That was Klaus Dost for us in London. Thank you for joining us.

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