King Frederik X landed in Greenland’s capital Nuuk on Wednesday afternoon in a show of support in the aftermath of the tensions caused by US President Donald Trump last month.
Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen greeted the Danish monarch after he landed. Frederik waved to well-wishers holding Greenland flags on arrival.
According to Danish public broadcaster DR, the king’s first appointment was a lunch at the Hans Egede house — Greenland’s oldest house, built in 1728, that was the residence of Dano-Norwegian Lutheran missionary Hans Egede. It’s now used for official government receptions.
DR reported a packed itenerary, saying that Frederik would tour Nuuk’s high school, visit a factory, meet students, visit the vast island’s Arctic Command and attend a social coffee break with the general public at the Katuaq Cultural Center, prior to a dinner appointment later in the evening.
Symbolic visit following Trump’s sudden threats
The symbolic value of the royal visit is considerable given Trump’s threats to seize the vast strategically important Arctic island, by force if necessary, which ratcheted up tensions between the US, Denmark and other European NATO members.
On Thursday, Frederik will travel to Maniitsoq, some 150 kilometers (90 miles) north of Nuuk, before visiting a Danish military Arctic training center in even less hospitable conditions farther north in Kangerlussuaq.
Despite Denmark’s past as colonial power, the monarchy and Frederik have long enjoyed considerable popularity with much of the population of Greenland.
The king is an avid sportsman who enjoys the outdoors. As a young man in 2000, he took part in a gruelling four-month 3,500 kilometer ski expeditioon across Greenland as part of the Danish Navy’s elite Sirius dogsled patrol.
Frederik became monarch in January 2024 when his mother Queen Margrethe abdicated the throne. He last visited the islan in April 2025.
‘This situation still affects the Greenlandic people a lot’
Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen visited the Munich Security Conference last week, telling DW: “I think this situation still affects the Greenlandic people a lot.”
“You can imagine, if the biggest power in the world is talking about annexation and acquiring your country,” he said. “People live in Greenland and they’re of course not happy with the situation, a lot feel scared.”
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said on Saturday that she believed Trump still desires to own Greenland despite dialling back his recent threats to seize it by force.
In January, during his visit to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Trump lobbied loudly for the US to take control of the island. Amid rapid and stern pushback from European allies, the US president suddenly announced a “deal” shortly before leaving Switzerland, albeit offering no details.
A US-Denmark working group to discuss Washington’s security concerns has since been established.
“We are willing to work together, in respect and good manners,” Nielsen told DW last week. “Greenland is ready to strengthen the partnership we already have. We have been partners and allies for 80 years. And we have been steadfast in that. We can build on it … We are ready to do more in mutual respect.”
Why is Greenland strategically significant?
The US already has longstanding rights to extensive military access and activity on Greenland, which dates back to the end of World War II. This was both because of naval access questions and because Soviet or now Russian nuclear weapons’ theoretical flight path towards the US all traverse the Arctic region.
But in recent decades, the US has drastically reduced its military footprint on the resource-rich island of its own volition.
Climate change and melting sea ice are also making the already strategically valuable waters around the Arctic more easily accessible. This process seems liable to continue in years to come, potentially changing and shortening commercial shipping lanes.
Edited by: Dmytro Hubenko
