AP WASHINGTON

Vice-President JD Vance said that he will be joining his wife, Usha,  on a Friday trip to Greenland, suggesting in an online video that global security is at stake. "We're going to check out how things are going there," Vance said in a video shared Tuesday. "Speaking for President Trump, we want to reinvigorate the security of the people of Greenland because we think it's important to protecting the security of the entire world."

President Donald Trump irked much of Europe by suggesting that the United States should in some form control the self-governing, mineral-rich territory of American ally Denmark. As the nautical gateway to the Arctic and North Atlantic approaches North America, Greenland has broader strategic value as both China and Russia also seek access to its waterways and the nearby natural resources.

The Vice-President's decision to visit a US military base in Greenland has removed the risk of violating potential diplomatic taboos by sending a delegation to another country without an official invite.  A Reuters  report  said Denmark on Wednesday welcomed the US decision to confine a planned visit to Greenland to a military base after the plans triggered a spat between Copenhagen and the White House amid President Trump's interest in taking over the island.

"I think it's very positive that the Americans cancelled their visit to the Greenlandic society. Instead, they will visit their own base, Pituffik, and we have nothing against that," Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen told broadcaster DR.