Take trump seriously on Greenland, Vance warns Europe

US Vice President JD Vance warned Europe on Thursday to take Donald Trump "seriously" on Greenland as the president ramps up threats against the Danish-ruled Arctic territory.

Vance accused fellow NATO member Denmark and the rest of Europe of failing to do enough to protect the strategically-located island from the designs of Russia and China.

European capitals have been scrambling to come up with a coordinated response after the White House said this week that Trump wanted to buy Greenland and refused to rule out military action.

"I guess my advice to European leaders and anybody else would be to take the president of the United States seriously," Vance told a briefing at the White House when asked about Greenland. Vance urged them to respond in particular to Trump's insistence that the United States needs the island for "missile defense," with Moscow and Beijing increasing military activities nearby and the Arctic ice melting due to climate change.

"So what we're asking our European friends to do is to take the security of that land mass more seriously, because if they're not, the United States is going to have to do something about it," Vance said.

"What that is, I'll leave that to the president as we continue to engage in diplomacy with our European friends and everybody on this particular topic."

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is due to meet officials from Denmark and Greenland next week.

An emboldened Trump has long talked about acquiring Greenland but has ramped up his threats since the US military operation to topple Venezuela's ruler Nicolas Maduro last week.

The threats have infuriated Denmark, a founding NATO member and long-time US ally, and set alarm bells ringing across Europe. An invasion would pit Washington against fellow NATO member Denmark and threaten to blow up the entire military alliance, which is based on a mutual self-defence clause.

A flurry of diplomacy is underway as Europeans try to head off a crisis while at the same time avoiding the wrath of Trump, who is nearing the end of his first year back in power.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer "set out his position on Greenland" during a call with Trump on Wednesday and then said more could be done to protect the "high Arctic" from Russia in a second call on Thursday, Downing Street said. European countries have stood in solidarity with Denmark, with key leaders issuing a joint statement with Copenhagen saying it was for Denmark and Greenland alone to decide its fate.

French President Emmanuel Macron even warned on Thursday that the United States was "turning away" from allies in some of his strongest criticism yet of Trump's policies.

Macron said "global governance" was key at a time when "every day people wonder whether Greenland is going to be invaded."

Vance, however, has long been critical of Europe over defense issues, saying in a leaked chat with senior US officials last year that he hated "bailing out" the continent.

Meanwhile, US officials have discussed sending lump sum payments to Greenlanders as part of a bid to convince them to secede from Denmark and potentially join the United States, according to four sources familiar with the matter.

While the exact dollar figure and logistics of any payment are unclear, US officials, including White House aides, have discussed figures ranging from $10,000 to $100,000 per person, said two of the sources, who requested anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

The idea of directly paying residents of Greenland, an overseas territory of Denmark, offers one explanation of how the US might attempt to "buy" the island of 57,000 people, despite authorities' insistence in Copenhagen and Nuuk that Greenland is not for sale.

The tactic is among various plans being discussed by the White House for acquiring Greenland, including potential use of the US military. But it risks coming off as overly transactional and even degrading to a population that has long debated its own independence and its economic dependence on Denmark.

"Enough is enough ... No more fantasies about annexation," Greenland's Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen wrote in a Facebook post on Sunday after US President Donald Trump again told reporters the US needed to acquire the island.