Disagreement remains at talks over Greenland
Newshour
BBC
4.2 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 14 January 2026
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The foreign ministers of Denmark and Greenland say there's still a fundamental disagreement with the United States over Greenland, after high- level talks in Washington they described as frank but constructive. Denmark's Lars Løkke Rasmussen said it was absolutely not necessary for the US to seize Greenland. He also insisted that there was no immediate threat from China or Russia. President Trump earlier said the US needed the autonomous Danish territory for national security and anything less than complete US control was 'unacceptable'. The Trump administration has not ruled out taking Greenland by force.
Also in the programme: how Ukrainians are coping with repeated Russian assaults on energy infrastructure; and music from the Indian composer known as the Mozart of Madras.
(Photo: A ship sails outside Nuuk's harbour, Greenland, January 13, 2026. Credit: Reuters/Marko Djurica)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:09.4 | Hello and welcome to Newsare. It's coming to live from the BBC World Service studios in central London. |
| 0:15.5 | I'm Tim Franks. Coming up on the programme? |
| 0:22.5 | The drums of battle or of diplomacy, we assess the musical talents of the Japanese and South Korean leaders |
| 0:29.7 | and the Russian schoolteacher who stood up against Kremlin propaganda after the invasion of Ukraine. |
| 0:36.8 | I remember filming the first class that was done. |
| 0:41.8 | And unfortunately, I will never be able to forget this experience on this hour. |
| 0:48.6 | It's edged in my memory for Rava. |
| 0:52.1 | A remarkable insight from one teacher in a small town in Russia coming up in about |
| 0:56.9 | 45 minutes. We're beginning, though, in Washington, where a top-level meeting between the Danish, |
| 1:03.5 | the Greenlandic and the American administration finished a couple of hours ago. As the Danish |
| 1:08.8 | foreign minister said, teeth only slightly gritted, |
| 1:12.5 | we're glad that after 13 months of statements from the US, increasingly impatient statements, |
| 1:18.1 | about President Trump and from President Trump saying that he wanted to take over the semi-autonomous |
| 1:24.6 | Danish territory of Greenland, at last there's been a chance of some face-to-face diplomacy. |
| 1:30.1 | The meeting was between the Danish and Greenlandic foreign ministers, |
| 1:33.4 | and they were facing the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio |
| 1:36.6 | and the Vice President J.D. Vance. |
| 1:39.4 | Speaking after the meeting in the White House, |
| 1:41.1 | the Danish Foreign Minister, Lars Lerger Asmussen, |
| 1:43.9 | set out what he repeatedly described as his country's red lines. |
| 1:48.5 | We had what I will describe as a frank but also constructive discussion. |
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