WASHINGTON, March 28. /TASS/. US Vice President JD Vance has visited Greenland on Friday, holding a press conference on the outcomes of his trip. According to Vance, the United States intends to expand its military presence around Greenland, including at sea, in the future, but Washington has no plans to begin such efforts right now.
TASS has gathered key remarks by the US vice president.
Greenland
The US administration hopes for Greenland’s independence and its peaceful accession to the United States, and Washington has no plans to use military force in this case, 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," he noted.
According to Vance, the Danish authorities are not taking sufficient measures to ensure Greenland’s security in light of Russia’s and China’s interest in the region. "We know that Russia, China and other nations are taking an extraordinary interest in Arctic passageways and Arctic naval routes, and, indeed, in the minerals of the Arctic territories. We need to ensure that America is leading in the Arctic, because we know that if America doesn’t, other nations will fill the gap," Vance stated.
"Let’s be honest — Denmark, over the last 20 years, has failed to do [anything] in some cases [involving Greenland’s security]. <…> Unfortunately, this place, this base, the surrounding area is less secure than it was 30-40 years ago, because some of our allies haven’t kept up as China and Russia have taken greater and greater interest in Greenland, in this base, in the activities of the brave Americans right here. We know that too often our allies in Europe have not kept pace, they haven’t kept pace with military spending, and Denmark 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 very aggressive incursions from Russia, from China, and from other nations," the vice president added.
Meanwhile, the United States intends to expand its military presence around Greenland, including at sea, in the future, but Washington has no plans to begin such efforts right now. "Well, are there immediate plans to expand our military presence? No," he said. "But are there general objectives that we want to accomplish, that will certainly require us investing more resources, investing in additional military, ice breakers, investing in additional naval ships that will have a greater presence in Greenland? Absolutely," Vance stressed.
Black Sea ceasefire
The agreements on a ceasefire in the Black Sea are almost ready. "We’ve got a Black Sea commercial ceasefire, that I think is almost done. And once we get there, we’ll work on the next stage — the ceasefire," the US vice president said.
"The president [Donald Trump] has said, and he’s right, that, I think, we feel very good about where things are. We trust, but verify," Vance noted.
On the recent scandal
US President Donald Trump has no intention of firing anyone from his national security team over the scandal involving the leaked data on US military strikes against Ansar Allah positions in Yemen, the vice president stated. He emphasized that Democrat-backed media outlets are very "interested in forcing the president of the United States to fire someone" over the scandal. "That is not honest behavior from the American media, and if you think you’re going to force the president of the United States to fire anybody, you’ve got another thing coming — President Trump has said it on Monday, on Tuesday, on Wednesday, on Thursday, and I’m, the vice president, saying it here, on Friday — we are standing behind our entire National Security team," he noted.