United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday that he will meet with Danish officials next week to discuss the Danish autonomous territory of Greenland.
The White House said on Tuesday that Trump was discussing options for acquiring the strategic Arctic island, including potential use of the US military, despite European objections.
Asked on Wednesday about Denmark's offer to discuss the situation in Greenland, Rubio said: "I'll be meeting with them next week. We'll have those conversations with them then."
Asked if Trump planned for the US to buy Greenland, Rubio said that this had always been the president's intent.
"If the president identifies a threat to the national security of the United States, every president retains the option to address it through military means. As a diplomat, which is what I am now, and what we work on, we always prefer to settle it in different ways - that included in Venezuela," Rubio told reporters.
Trump, who first voiced the idea of gaining control of Greenland in 2019 during his first term, argued that the island is key to US military strategy and claims Denmark has not done enough to protect it.
The US and Denmark are both NATO members, and a US military seizure of Greenland may disrupt the alliance.
Trump committed to NATO
Trump remains committed to the NATO alliance even as he and his national security team are holding active discussions about Greenland, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said on Wednesday.
"All options are always on the table for President Trump," Leavitt told reporters at a White House briefing. "The president's first option always has been diplomacy."
Leavitt said an acquisition of Greenland would give the United States more control over the Arctic region and an ability to counter aggression in a strategic area.
"The president has been very open and clear with all of you and with the world that he views it in the best interest of the United States to deter Russian and Chinese aggression in the Arctic region, and so that's why his team is currently talking about what a potential purchase would look like," she said.
Trump said earlier on Wednesday that the US would support NATO and that Russia and China only feared the alliance as long as the United States was a member.
"We will always be there for NATO, even if they won’t be there for us," he said in a post on Truth Social.
Leavitt said she had not heard Trump question Denmark's claim to Greenland.