By Tom Little and Stine Jacobsen
COPENHAGEN, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Greenland should hold direct talks with the U.S. government without Denmark, a Greenlandic opposition leader told Reuters, as the Arctic island weighs how to respond to President Donald Trump's renewed push to bring it under U.S. control.
Trump has recently stepped up threats to take over Greenland, reviving an idea he floated in 2019 during his first term in office.
Greenland is strategically located between Europe and North America, making it a critical site for the U.S. ballistic missile defence system. Its rich mineral resources also fit Washington's goal of reducing dependence on China.
The island is an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. It has its own parliament and government, but Copenhagen retains authority over foreign affairs and defence.
"We encourage our current (Greenlandic) government actually to have a dialogue with the U.S. government without Denmark," said Pele Broberg, the leader of Naleraq, the largest opposition party and the most prominent political voice for Greenland's independence.
"Because Denmark is antagonising both Greenland and the U.S. with their mediation."
Naleraq, which strongly advocates a rapid move to full independence, doubled its seats to eight in last year's election, winning 25% of the vote in the nation of just 57,000.
Although excluded from the governing coalition, the party has said it wants a defence agreement with Washington and could pursue a "free association" arrangement - under which Greenland would receive U.S. support and protection in exchange for military rights, without becoming a U.S. territory.
All Greenlandic parties want independence but differ on how, and when, to achieve it.
GOVERNMENT SAYS DIRECT TALKS NOT POSSIBLE
Greenlandic Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt said Greenland could not conduct direct talks with the U.S. without Denmark because it is not legally allowed to do so.
"We must respect the law, and we have rules for how to resolve issues in the Kingdom," she told Sermitsiaq daily late on Wednesday.
The Danish and Greenlandic governments did not immediately reply to requests for comment on Broberg's remarks.
The comments come ahead of a planned meeting between the Danish and Greenlandic foreign ministers and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio next week to address tensions between NATO allies.
Motzfeldt said it was important to set Greenland's relationship with Washington on a steady course.
"My greatest hope is that the meeting will lead to a normalisation of our relationship," she told Sermitsiaq.
Denmark and Greenland are seeking to steer the debate back onto a diplomatic track, where rational concerns can be addressed, said Ulrik Pram Gad, senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies.
"The strategy is to get Trump's undiplomatic social media statements put back into stabilised diplomatic channels," he told Reuters.
'DANISH SOLDIERS FOUGHT SHOULDER TO SHOULDER WITH ALLIES'
Still, emotions are running high.
Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen posted on X a picture of the coffin of a Danish soldier being carried out of a church - a soldier the defence ministry said was killed in Afghanistan in 2011 - underlining the contribution Denmark has made in the past for its ally the U.S.
"The only time the (NATO) alliance's musketeer oath has been triggered was when the USA was attacked on September 11, 2001. Our close allies asked for help, and Denmark stood ready," he wrote.
"In first Afghanistan and then Iraq, Danish soldiers fought shoulder to shoulder with our allies ... Many capable, heroic soldiers paid the highest price."
Separately, and in a rare move, the Tivoli amusement park in central Copenhagen was flying the Greenlandic flag on Thursday.
NATO AMBASSADORS AGREE STRONGER ARCTIC ROLE NEEDED
NATO ambassadors in Brussels held a "cordial" discussion on Greenland Thursday, agreeing the alliance should strengthen Arctic security, sources said.
"No drama," said a senior NATO diplomat. "Lots of agreement that NATO needs to accelerate its development of stronger deterrence presence in the region."
Specific steps remain undecided, though some nations suggested modeling efforts on NATO's eastern flank missions — Baltic Sentry and Eastern Sentry — which use flexible multinational deployments and advanced tech like drones and sensors to monitor land and sea.
Meanwhile, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the bloc is weighing its response if U.S. plans to acquire Greenland materialise.
"The messages we hear are extremely concerning," she said. "...if this is a real threat...then what would be our response?"
VARYING ATTITUDES IN WASHINGTON?
Top officials in the Trump administration seem to have different perspectives on how to achieve their objectives. Secretary of State Rubio appears not to favour a military operation, according to France's foreign minister. But others say the option is on the table.
"We are going to make sure we defend America's interests," U.S. Vice President JD Vance told Fox News in an interview aired late on Wednesday. "And I think the president is willing to go as far as he has to make sure he does that."
(Reporting by Tom Little, Stine Jacobsen, Soren Jeppesen and Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen in Copenhagen; Andrew Gray and Lili Bayer in Brussels; Louise Breusch Rasmussen in Paris; writing by Gwladys Fouche; Editing by Ed Osmond, Ros Russell and Hugh Lawson)
