US envoy visits Greenland as leaders repeat 'not for sale' stance

President Donald Trump's special envoy to Greenland, Jeff Landry, has begun his first visit to the Arctic territory in Nuuk, where he is attending a business summit and is due to open a new US consulate building. The trip comes as Greenlandic leaders continue to reject any suggestion that the territory could be put up for sale. It also takes place against the backdrop of an unresolved diplomatic dispute involving the United States, Greenland and Denmark.

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Landry said on arrival that he was in Greenland to "build relationships" and to "look, to listen and to learn". He travelled with a small entourage and was accompanied in the city by Jorgen Boassen, a Greenlandic Trump supporter who attended the US president's inauguration. The envoy also met a former mayor and several business leaders, while an American doctor travelling with the delegation said he had volunteered to assess medical needs in Greenland.

Greenland's health minister, Anna Wangenheim, criticised that move as "deeply problematic". On Monday, Landry and the US ambassador to Denmark, Ken Howery, met Greenland's prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen. Nielsen later said the talks were held in a good tone, but he reiterated that Greenlanders had made clear the people of Greenland are not for sale and that self-determination is not open to negotiation.

Greenland's foreign minister, Mute Egede, said the US had not given up on its aims to acquire the territory, adding that the Americans' starting point had not changed either. The visit is taking place without an official invitation, according to the supplied material. The timing matters because Greenland remains a self-governing Danish autonomous territory with strategic importance in the Arctic.

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The dispute has become a wider test of relations between Washington, Nuuk and Copenhagen, and of how far the US is prepared to push its interests in the region. The issue also carries legal and political weight because Greenlandic leaders have repeatedly framed the question as one of self-determination rather than diplomacy alone. The current visit follows months of tension after Mr Trump made repeated claims about Greenland and, in February, announced he was sending a US hospital ship to the island, an offer that was rejected by Greenland's leader.

Landry was appointed to the envoy role in December 2025 and has said Mr Trump told him to go to Greenland and make friends. The trip is therefore being presented by Washington as a goodwill mission, even as Greenlandic officials continue to stress that the core dispute has not changed. What remains unclear is whether the business summit, the consulate opening or the wider talks between the US, Denmark and Greenland will produce any movement on the underlying issue.

Greenlandic officials have signalled that their position is unchanged, while the US side has not publicly indicated a shift in policy. The next developments to watch are whether the diplomatic contacts continue in a constructive tone and whether either side changes its public language on Greenland's future.

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