Vice President Vance says he does not think America will have to use military force to take control of Greenland because the residents of the Arctic island will voluntarily choose to “partner with the United States.”

During his visit to Greenland on Friday, Mr. Vance toured the Pituffik Space Base, which is operated by America’s Space Force, to receive a briefing on security issues. Reporters asked him about Mr. Trump’s comment made earlier in the day that “we have to have Greenland.” Mr. Vance said America supports Greenland’s right to self-determination, but added that he hopes Greelanders “choose to partner with the United States because we’re the only nation on earth that will respect their sovereignty.” 

“We do not think military force is ever going to be necessary,” Mr. Vance said. “What we think is going to happen is that the Greenlanders are going to choose, through self determination, to become independent of Denmark, and then we’re going to have conversations with the people of Greenland from there.”

The vice president said Denmark, which governs the semi-autonomous Greenland’s foreign and security policy, has “not kept pace in devoting the resources necessary to keep this base, to keep our troops, and in my view, to keep the people of Greenland safe from a lot of aggressive incursions from Russia, from China, and from other nations.”

Officials in Denmark have criticized Mr. Vance’s visit. Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, said of the trip, “I have to say that it is unacceptable pressure being put on Greenland and Denmark in this situation. And it’s a pressure we will stand against.”

Hours before the vice president’s comments, Mr. Trump told reporters, “We have to have Greenland. It’s not a question of: Do you think we can do without it? We can’t.”

“If you look at Greenland right now, if you look at the waterways, you have Chinese and Russian ships all over the place,” Mr. Trump said. “We’re not relying on Denmark or anybody else to take care of that situation. And we’re not talking about peace for the United States. Greenland’s very important for the peace of the world.”

He insisted that “Denmark understands it” as well as the European Union. However, he said, “If they don’t, we’re going to have to explain it to them.”