A musher walks along with his Greenlandic sled canine after finishing a canine sled race to find out which contestant attends the nationwide competitors on March 8 in Ilulissat, Greenland.
Joe Raedle/Getty Photographs
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Joe Raedle/Getty Photographs
Second girl Usha Vance has scrapped a plan to attend Greenland’s nationwide canine sled race this week. However American tax {dollars} will assist assist the race anyway.
NPR has discovered that the State Division has supplied a grant to move the canine, sleds and racers by air from round Greenland for the race. The State Division didn’t present a value estimate, however a U.S. official not approved to talk publicly stated it is within the vary of tens of hundreds of {dollars}.
“The United States, through our Consulate in Nuuk, sponsored the transport of all dogs, sleds, and racers to and from 10 cities and towns around Greenland for the race,” a State Division spokesman advised NPR in an announcement. “We are still coordinating with race organizers to determine needs and fix a final amount of our sponsorship.”
This all comes as Secretary of State Marco Rubio has cancelled greater than 80 % of international support grants. Grants at the moment are screened to find out whether or not they make the U.S. stronger, safer and extra affluent. On the identical time, the Trump administration has made cuts to grants for USAID packages all over the world and in addition frozen funding for Fulbright students.
Mikkel Jeremiasson, who chairs Greenland’s nationwide canine sled race, advised native reporters that the precise quantity from the State Division for transporting the canine, racers and tools was substantial however the precise quantity is confidential because of the phrases of the settlement. Danish newspaper, Berlingske, experiences that Air Greenland has been advised to ship invoices for the flights to the U.S. Consulate within the capital metropolis, Nuuk.
The Pituffik House Base (previously Thule Air Base) is pictured in northern Greenland, on Oct. 4, 2023. The bottom modified its identify earlier in 2023.
Thomas Traasdahl/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP by way of Getty Photographs
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Thomas Traasdahl/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP by way of Getty Photographs
As an alternative of attending the race on the journey, Vice President JD Vance will now accompany Usha Vance to an American House Pressure base in Pituffik, amid deliberate protests on the canine race and rising anger amongst Greenland and Danish officers over President Trump’s efforts to make Greenland a part of the US. Nationwide polls have proven most Greenlanders are in opposition to changing into a part of the US. Protests have popped up across the nation, with Greenlanders carrying “Make America Go Away” caps and holding “Yankees go home” banners.
“This is clearly a deescalation,” Danish International Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen stated of the choice by Usha Vance to forgo the canine sled race. “I think it’s very positive that the Americans cancelled their visit to the Greenlandic Society. Instead their own base, Pituffik, and we have nothing against that.”
“There was so much excitement around Usha’s visit to Greenland this Friday that I decided that I didn’t want her to have all that fun by herself, and so I’m going to join her,” Vance stated in a video launched on X on Tuesday afternoon.
The Vances plan to go to American troops on the Pituffik House Base and get briefings from service members. The bottom, as soon as recognized at Thule Air Base, has some 650 personnel, together with U.S. Air Pressure and House Pressure members, in addition to Canadian, Danish and Greenlandic civilian contractors.
“It’s really important,” Vance stated within the video. “A lot of other countries have threatened Greenland, have threatened to use its territories and its waterways to threaten the United States, to threaten Canada, and of course, to threaten the people of Greenland, so we’re going to check out how things are going there.”
Vance stated the Trump administration needs to “reinvigorate” safety for Greenland, including that leaders in each America and Denmark have “ignored Greenland for far too long.” He stated that is been dangerous for Greenland and “the security of the entire world.”
Greenland’s Prime Minister Mute Egede has referred to as the go to a part of a “very aggressive American pressure against the Greenlandic community.” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederickson referred to as the U.S. delegation an “unacceptable pressure” and vowed resistance.
Jens-Frederik Nielsen, chief of the Greenland’s Demokraatit celebration and poised to be the nation’s subsequent prime minister following elections earlier this month, stated the go to confirmed a “lack of respect for the Greenlandic people.”
Trump, in an interview with podcaster Vince Coglianese on Wednesday, as soon as once more referred to as for Greenland to turn out to be a part of the US.
America has “to let them know that we need Greenland for international safety and security. We need it. We have to have it,” Trump stated. “It’s [an] island from a defensive posture and even offensive posture is something we need. … When you look at the ships going up their shore by the hundreds, it’s a busy place.”
