Denmark's Greenland Illusion

On January 14, 2026, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen and Greenland’s Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt stepped out of a tense, closed-door meeting at the White House. Inside, they had spent an hour facing Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The subject was Greenland — its future, its security, and President Trump’s increasingly explicit ambition to bring the Arctic territory under American control.

Outside the Danish embassy, the scene unfolded in a way that felt unmistakably Danish. First came a quick fist bump and shoulder tap between Løkke and Ambassador Jesper Møller Sørensen — a small gesture of relief and solidarity after polite confrontation. Then came the cigarettes. Løkke lit one, exhaled deeply, and stood for a moment as if releasing the pressure of diplomacy performed at full emotional restraint.

In Copenhagen, this scene reads as quiet heroism. Løkke later described the talks as “frank but also constructive”. He admitted there were no breakthroughs — “we didn’t manage to change the American position” — but emphasized progress nonetheless. The parties agreed to establish a high-level working group to “explore a common way forward”, addressing American security concerns while respecting Denmark’s red lines: sovereignty over Greenland and the right of Greenlanders to self-determination.

In Denmark, this is what responsible leadership looks like. Calm under pressure. Dialogue instead of escalation. Inclusion rather than force. Keep talking. Keep the process alive. Trust that reason, patience, and goodwill will eventually soften conflict — or at least contain it. This reflects the Danish consensus model at its purest: the belief that broad agreement is preferable to confrontation, and that standing together is itself a form of strength. Danish media quickly filled with commentators reassuring one another that unity would prevail, that composure itself was a strategic asset. One senior politician — the chair of the Danish Foreign Policy Committee – even spoke approvingly of “diplomatic body contact” — as if proximity, tone, and mutual recognition could substitute for leverage.