Second lady Usha Vance was originally scheduled to visit Greenland on a solo trip from Thursday through Saturday to “visit historical sites, learn about Greenlandic heritage, and attend the Avannaata Qimussersua, Greenland’s national dogsled race,” the White House said.
Instead, the trip has been scaled back. The vice president and second lady are scheduled to visit Pituffik Space Base in Greenland, the US military’s northernmost installation, on Friday.
Usha Vance’s solo trip could have violated diplomatic protocol by sending a delegation to another country without an invitation. The amended plan — visiting a US base — avoids that potential violation. While Trump said on Monday that “people from Greenland are asking us to go there,” the government of Greenland said they had not invited any foreign delegations to visit.
“Just for the record, Naalakkersuisut, the government of Greenland, has not extended any invitations for any visits, neither private nor official,” the government’s official Facebook page wrote in a post on Monday.
Greenland Prime Minister Múte Bourup Egede also called Usha Vance’s planned trip “very aggressive” in an interview with Sermitsiaq, a Greenlandic newspaper.
“Vice President JD Vance and second lady Usha Vance are proud to visit the Pituffik Space Base in Greenland this Friday,” Taylor Van Kirk, JD Vance’s press secretary, told Business Insider on Thursday. “As the vice president has said, previous US leaders have neglected Arctic security, while Greenland’s Danish rulers have neglected their security obligations to the island. The security of Greenland is critical in ensuring the security of the rest of the world, and the Vice President looks forward to learning more about the island.”
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