By Stine Jacobsen and Anna Ringstrom
COPENHAGEN, Jan 14 (Reuters) – Greenland’s Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt and her Danish counterpart Lars Lokke Rasmussen are meeting U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday, amid President Donald Trump’s repeated threats to seize control of Greenland.
Analysts have described it as the most important meeting in modern Danish history. These are the two ministers working to navigate the crisis on behalf of the Kingdom of Denmark:
GREENLAND’S FOREIGN MINISTER, VIVIAN MOTZFELDT
Vivian Motzfeldt, 53, grew up as a sheep farmer’s daughter in southern Greenland. At seven years old she moved to a boarding school and when she was 17 she went to the United States on a student exchange programme, according to an interview she gave to daily Sermitsiaq in 2019.
Her official resume shows she worked as a teacher at various Greenlandic schools from 1997-2014 before entering politics. She is married and has four children.
Motzfeldt has been serving as minister of foreign affairs since 2022 and previously served as speaker of Inatsisartut, the parliament of Greenland and as the chair of Greenland’s constitutional committee.
“She appears to be a pragmatic politician who understands the power game,” Mette Marie Staehr Harder, assistant professor at the University of Copenhagen who has analysed Motzfeldt’s social media posts, told Reuters.
Motzfeldt has not hesitated to publicly criticise Denmark when she believes Greenlandic interests are sidelined.
“If she has a case, she is not afraid to challenge whoever it may be,” Harder said.
Motzfeldt has repeatedly made clear that Greenland does not want to be part of the United States but is open to more cooperation.
“My greatest hope is that the meeting will lead to a normalisation of our relationship,” Sermitsiaq quoted her as saying on Wednesday.
DENMARK’S FOREIGN MINISTER, LARS LOKKE RASMUSSEN
Lars Lokke Rasmussen, 61, a two-time prime minister and a former finance minister, is the ultimate veteran of Danish politics, serving as the Nordic country’s foreign minister since 2022.
A law degree holder and widely regarded as a skilled negotiator, he led a centre-right coalition government from 2009 to 2011 and again from 2015 to 2019 as head of Denmark’s Liberal Party.
He eventually resigned from the Liberals after his government lost the 2019 election, forming a new centrist group, the Moderate Party, of which he is now the leader.
A strong advocate for the rule of law at home and abroad, Rasmussen adheres to a “pragmatic idealism” in foreign policy, meaning that Denmark should approach the world as it is, realistically and pragmatically, while maintaining principles of democracy and human rights.
He has weathered controversies during his decades in politics, including over the spending of party money on drinks, taxis and underwear, but bouncing back each time with a down-to-earth image appreciated by many Danes.
(Reporting by Stine Jacobsen in Copenhagen and Anna Ringstrom in Stockholm, Editing by Terje Solsvik and Alison Williams)
