Protests planned at new consulate after Trump envoy says time for US ‘to put its footprint back’ on Greenland

“Three months ago Greenland was under threat of invasion and takeover and he [Landry] was one of the people supporting that statement,” he said. “Then three months later you show up here wanting to make friends, handing out chocolate to children and trying to hand out Maga caps.”

Among the speakers was Rufus Gifford, the US ambassador to Denmark between 2013 and 2017, who criticised comments by Landry to reporters that had suggested no-high level diplomats had visited Greenland before Trump became president.

“He wants Greenlanders to be grateful to Donald Trump. You are way in over your head, man. Way in over your head. Go home,” said Gifford in a video posted on social media.

Trump has repeatedly threatened to invade Greenland, which he claims he needs for US national security. As well as its location on the shortest route for missiles between the US and Russia, Greenland is also attracting global attention for its rare-earth minerals and its critical location for shipping as the polar ice melts.

A US Northern Command (Northcom) spokesperson told the Guardian last month that the US was “evaluating options to strengthen homeland defence efforts in Greenland” and any new defence areas would be established “in accordance with the 1951 agreement on the defence of Greenland”.

That included plans for “significant investment” in Pituffik, where the US already has a base, and the possibility of “expanding defence areas beyond Pituffik”. Among additional sites under consideration, the spokesperson said, was Narsarsuaq, a settlement in southern Greenland but, they said, no final decisions had been made.

The US was also looking at the use of deep-water ports and longer airfields, Northcom said. “Particularly to support maritime surveillance and operations in the North Atlantic and to track activity past the Greenland-Iceland-UK Gap.”

They added that they US was “coordinating with the kingdom of Denmark on site surveys and assessments” which were expected to take “several months”.

While talks between political leaders in Copenhagen have entered their eighth week after a general election in March, the foreign policy committee continues to meet. Denmark’s acting foreign minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, will attend Thursday’s Nato meeting of foreign ministers in Helsingborg, Sweden. The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, will also be there.

In an interview with the Greenlandic newspaper Sermitsiaq, Landry appeared to try to capitalise on Greenland’s future hopes for full independence from Denmark.

“I think there are some incredible opportunities that can actually lift Greenlanders from dependency to independence,” he said. “I think that the president of the United States would like to see the country become economically independent. And I think it’s possible here.”