of Europe of failing to do enough to protect the strategically-located island from the designs of Russia and China. European capitals have been scrambling to come up with a coordinated response after the White House said this week that Trump wanted to buy Greenland and refused to rule out military action.

"I guess my advice to European leaders and anybody else would be to take the president of the United States seriously," Vance told a briefing at the White House when asked about Greenland. Vance urged them to respond in particular to Trump's insistence that the United States needs the island for "missile defense," with Moscow and Beijing increasing military activities nearby and the Arctic ice melting due to climate change. "So what we're asking our European friends to do is to take the security of that land mass more seriously, because if they're not, the United States is going to have to do something about it," Vance said.

"What that is, I'll leave that to the president as we continue to engage in diplomacy with our European friends and everybody on this particular topic." US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is due to meet officials from Denmark and Greenland next week. An emboldened Trump has long talked about acquiring Greenland but has ramped up his threats since the US military operation to topple Venezuela's ruler Nicolas Maduro last week. (Bssnews)