UNITED STATES vice-president JD Vance was set to meet Denmark’s Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen and his Greenlandic counterpart Vivian Motzfeldt in Washington today to discuss the future of Greenland.

Greenland, which is a semi-autonomous territory of US Nato ally Denmark, is at the centre of a geopolitical storm as US President Donald Trump is insisting he wants to own the island.

President Trump said he intends to take over Greenland and has not ruled outdoing so by force.

Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen told a news conference in the Danish capital Copenhagen on Tuesday that “if we have to choose between the United States and Denmark here and now, we choose Denmark. We choose Nato. We choose the Kingdom of Denmark. We choose the EU.”

Asked later on Tuesday about Mr Nielsen’s comments, President Trump replied: “I disagree with him. I don’t know who he is. I don’t know anything about him. But, that’s going to be a big problem for him.”

Ahead of Wednesday’s meeting, Naaja Nathanielsen, Greenland’s minister for business and mineral resources, said it’s “unfathomable” that the US is discussing taking over a Nato ally and urged the Trump administration to listen to voices from Greenland’s people.