第二夫人乌莎·万斯(Usha Vance)将是本周前往格陵兰岛的代表团成员之一，此前美国总统唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)一再表示，美国应该拥有并控制这块半自治的丹麦领土。
万斯的办公室于周日宣布了此次旅行，并将其描述为一次致力于了解格陵兰文化的旅行，途中将在历史遗迹和国家狗拉雪橇比赛中停留。
美国国家安全委员会向ABC新闻证实，白宫国家安全顾问迈克·瓦尔兹和能源部长克里斯·赖特将加入她的行列。
国家安全委员会发言人布莱恩·休斯在一份声明中说:“美国在北极地区有既得安全利益，国家安全顾问和能源部长访问美国太空基地，以获得我们在地面上的服务人员的第一手简报，这不应令人惊讶。”
格陵兰总理穆特·艾格德在给格陵兰政府的声明中说Sermitsiaq报纸，称即将到来的访问是“美国对格陵兰社区非常积极的压力”的一部分，并呼吁国际社会介入谴责它。
周一，当被问及第二夫人对格陵兰岛的访问是否是对丹麦的挑衅时，特朗普说不是
“这是友好，不是挑衅，”特朗普在内阁会议后表示。“我们正在与许多来自格陵兰的人打交道，他们希望看到一些事情发生，让他们得到适当的保护和妥善的照顾。如果他们叫我们，我们不会叫他们。
特朗普再次呼吁格陵兰加入美国，并表示这是国家安全问题。
“他们真的很喜欢这个想法，因为正如你所知道的，他们已经被抛弃了。他们没有得到很好的照顾。我认为格陵兰岛可能会成为我们的未来，”特朗普说。
在总统交接期间，总统重新提出了他的第一任期建议，即美国对格陵兰岛的所有权。格陵兰岛是世界上最大的岛屿，也是丹麦境内的半自治领土。这再次促使格陵兰岛官员强调，该岛领土是不出售的。
他的儿子小唐纳德·特朗普，一月初访问了格陵兰岛就职典礼前几周。小特朗普表示，这是一次私人访问，他不会与官员会面，尽管总统仍然庆祝这一访问，并暗示他说“必须发生”的“交易”。
在某一点上，他明显拒绝排除武力获取格陵兰岛。
特朗普官员指出，随着中国和俄罗斯加大在北极的活动，格陵兰岛是国家安全的关键利益。格陵兰岛还拥有丰富的宝贵矿产，包括稀土矿产——加入该地区已成为特朗普外交政策议程的一部分。
特朗普在本月早些时候向国会发表的联合讲话中表示，他的政府需要格陵兰岛来维护“国际世界安全”。
“我认为我们会成功的。无论如何，我们都会得到它，”特朗普说。
特朗普对格陵兰岛感兴趣是因为他推动了对加拿大和巴拿马运河的类似土地掠夺。在与加拿大的贸易战中，特朗普已经呼吁美国的北方盟友成为第51个州尽管他的美国驻加拿大大使提名人指出加拿大是一个主权国家。
在周四访问格陵兰岛之前，第二夫人万斯发布了一段视频，称她将“庆祝我们两国之间相互尊重与合作的悠久历史，并表示希望我们的关系在未来几年只会越来越强。”
国家安全委员会表示，华尔兹和赖特“也期待体验格陵兰著名的热情好客，并相信这次访问提供了一个机会，建立尊重格陵兰自决和促进经济合作的伙伴关系。
“这是一次了解格陵兰岛、其文化、历史和人民的访问，并参加美国自豪地赞助的狗拉雪橇比赛，简单明了，”国家安全委员会在声明中说。
格陵兰总理在《脸书邮报》上说，万斯此行“不能仅仅被视为私人访问”
埃杰德补充道，“还应该大胆地说，我们的诚信和民主必须得到尊重，不受任何外部干扰。”
Usha Vance, US officials to visit Greenland as prime minister blasts 'aggressive American pressure'
Second lady Usha Vance will be part of a delegation traveling to Greenland this week, after President Donald Trump's repeated statements that the U.S. should own and control the semiautonomous Danish territory.
Vance's office announced the trip on Sunday, describing it as one dedicated to learning about Greenlandic culture with stops at historical sties and its national dogsled race.
White House national security adviser Mike Waltz and Secretary of Energy Chris Wright will be joining her, the National Security Council confirmed to ABC News.
"The U.S. has a vested security interest in the Arctic region and it should not be a surprise the National Security Advisor and Secretary of Energy are visiting a U.S. Space Base to get first-hand briefings from our service members on the ground," National Security Council spokesperson Brian Hughes said in a statement.
Greenland's Prime Minister Mute Egede, in a statement to Greenland'sSermitsiaqnewspaper, called the upcoming visit part of a "very aggressive American pressure against the Greenlandic community" and called for the international community to step in to rebuke it.
Asked Monday whether the second lady's visit to Greenland is a provocation of Denmark, Trump said no.
"This is friendliness, not provocation," Trump said after a Cabinet meeting. "We're dealing with a lot of people from Greenland that would like to see something happen with respect to their being properly protected and properly taken care of. If they're calling us, we're not calling them.
Trump renewed his calls for Greenland to join the U.S. and said that it is a matter of national security.
"They really like the idea because they have been somewhat abandoned, as you know. They haven't been taken well, good care of. And I think Greenland is going to be something that maybe is in our future," Trump said.
The president reintroduced his first-term suggestion for U.S. ownership of Greenland, the world's largest island and a semiautonomous territory within Denmark, during the presidential transition. It again prompted Greenland officials to emphasize the island territory is not for sale.
His son, Donald Trump Jr.,visited Greenland in early January, weeks before the inauguration. Trump Jr. said it was a personal visit and that he was not meeting with officials, though the president still celebrated it and alluded to a "deal" that he said "must happen."
At one point, he notably declined to rule out military force to acquire Greenland.
Trump officials have pointed to Greenland as a key interest for national security as China and Russia ramp up activity in the Arctic. Greenland is also rich in valuable minerals, including rare earth minerals -- the accession of which has become part of Trump's foreign policy agenda.
In his joint address to Congress earlier this month, Trump said his administration needed Greenland for "international world security."
"And I think we're going to get it. One way or the other, we're going to get it," Trump said.
Trump's interest in Greenland comes as he's pushed similar land grabs of Canada and the Panama Canal. Amid a trade war with Canada, Trump hascalled for America's northern ally to become the 51st state, though his nominee to be the U.S. ambassador to Canada has noted that it's a sovereign state.
Ahead of her visit to Greenland on Thursday, second lady Vance released a video saying she was going to "celebrate the long history of mutual respect and cooperation between our nations and to express hope that our relationship will only grow stronger in the coming years."
The National Security Council said Waltz and Wright "also look forward to experiencing Greenland's famous hospitality and are confident that this visit presents an opportunity to build on partnerships that respects Greenland's self-determination and advances economic cooperation.
"This is a visit to learn about Greenland, its culture, history, and people and to attend a dogsled race the United States is proud to sponsor, plain and simple," the National Security Council said in its statement.
Greenland's prime minister, in a Facebook post, said Vance's trip "cannot be seen only as a private visit."
Egede added, "It should also be said in a bold way that our integrity and democracy must be respected, without any external disturbance."
