Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen of Denmark arrived in Greenland on Friday for an unannounced visit, as the crisis over Greenland’s future and the alarm over American designs on it seemed to ease but not end.
Ms. Frederiksen landed around midday and met privately for about an hour with Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen of Greenland, a semiautonomous island that has been part of the Danish kingdom for 300 years. The two visited the waterfront of Nuuk, Greenland’s capital, went to a kindergarten and met with other Greenlandic officials before a short evening walk through the city.
The trip came amid continued pressure from President Trump, who has said the United States needs Greenland for national security, and it appeared to have been meant as reassurance to the 57,000 people who live in Greenland.
“I am first and foremost in Greenland today to show Denmark’s strong support for the Greenlandic people,” Ms. Frederiksen told reporters. “It has been a very difficult time. Anyone can see that.”
Greenlanders have bristled at Mr. Trump’s designs on their homeland since he floated the idea of buying it from Denmark during his first term, and they have been adamant that they do not want to be part of the United States.
Ms. Frederiksen described the visit as a working meeting and stressed the need for close coordination between Copenhagen and Nuuk. This week has been a blur of political developments for Greenland. Mr. Trump sharpened his threats to take the island, threatening tariffs against European countries that opposed him and then on Wednesday suddenly changing course and saying he was working out a compromise with NATO officials.
