VP Travel Report #5 - Greenland Trip - Vance remarks

Vance took several questions from reporters after delivering brief remarks. Please check the quotes to tape.

On whether the US is looking to expand its military presence in Greenland —

Are there immediate plans to expand our military presence? No, but are there, are there general objectives that we want to accomplish that will certainly require us investing more resources, investing in additional military icebreakers, investing in additional naval ships that will have a greater presence in Greenland, absolutely,

Over the medium term, the United States will meet that challenge. We will put our own resources here. We already have a lot of great resources here, but we know we're going to have to do more to counter some of our some of the nations that we know that we're competitive with.

Well, the President said we have to have Greenland, and I think that we do have to be more serious about the security of Greenland. We can't just ignore this place. We can't just ignore the President's desires. But most importantly, we can't ignore what I said earlier, which is the Russian and Chinese encroachment in Greenland.

But my argument again, to them, is, I think that you'd be a lot better having coming under the United States Security umbrella than you have been under Denmark security umbrella. Because what Denmark's security umbrella has meant is, effectively, they've passed it all off to brave Americans and hope that we would pick up the tab. We're simply saying to the people of Greenland. When the President says we've got to have Greenland, he's saying this island is not safe. A lot of people are interested in it. A lot of people are making a play. We know that America cares about the security of this island for the people, for the sake of the people of Greenland, but also for the sake of the sake of the national security interests of the United States of America. So our message is very simple, yes, the people of Greenland are going to have self determination. We hope that they choose to partner with the United States, because we're the only nation on earth that will respect their sovereignty and

respect their security, because their security is very much our security, as these brave Americans show

On when there will be an update on the internal investigation into the signal chat leak —

I think we'll get an update soon. Look, we take it very seriously. We all accept that a journalist should not have been invited into the chat, and members of the administration, including my dear friend Mike, have taken responsibility for it. But I find the American media's obsession with this issue very, very interesting

And if you think you're going to force the president united states to fire anybody, you've got another thing coming. President Trump has said it on Monday, on Tuesday, on Wednesday, on Thursday, and I'm the Vice President saying it here on Friday, we are standing behind our entire national security team.

On tariffs —

We love the Canadian people, but the Canadian leadership threatening retaliatory tariffs against the United States, as President Trump often says, they just don't have the cards. There is no way that Canada can win a trade war with the United States. What President Trump has said is he wants to level the playing field.

Has the US agreed to the Kremlin’s conditions on the Black Sea truce?

Well, there are a couple of different statements that are floating around out there, and some of them, I think, are mistranslations, and some of them are not totally clear what is even being asked for, but the President has said, and he's right, that I think we feel very good about where things are. We trust, verify, we make sure that what we're seeing from one party is met by the other party and vice versa. But I think that we've made an incredible amount of progress.

The President is going to fight every single day to make sure that happens. And of course, we'll keep you guys updated as we continue to make progress, I do think, if you look at what we've talked about, we've obviously got this energy infrastructure Cease fire. We've got a Black Sea commercial cease fire that, I think is almost done, and once we get there, we'll work on the next stage of the cease fire.

Has the US drafted military plans to take over Greenland?

Well, what the President has said like is that we need to have more of a position in Greenland. We need it again for the safety of the American people. And what we think is going to happen is that the Greenlanders are going to choose, through self determination, to become independent of Denmark, and then we're going to have conversations with the people of Greenland from there. So I think that talking about anything too far in the future is way too premature. We do not think that military force is ever going to be necessary. We think this makes sense, and because we think the people of Greenland are rational and good, we think we're gonna be able to cut a deal Donald Trump's style to ensure the security of this territory, but also the United States of America.

Kate Sullivan

White House Correspondent

Bloomberg News

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