The two sides, however, agreed to form a working group to discuss ways to resolve differences as Trump continues to call for a US seizure of semiautonomous territory on NATO ally Denmark.

“The group, in our view, should focus on how to respond to America’s security concerns, while at the same time respecting the red lines of the Kingdom of Denmark,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen told reporters after joining Greenland’s foreign minister, Vivian Motzfeldt, for talks. He added that it remains “clear that the president has this desire to conquer Greenland.”

Trump tried to make the case that NATO should help the US secure the world’s largest island and said anything less than it being under American control was unacceptable.

Denmarkon the other hand, announced plans to increase the country’s military presence in the Arctic and North Atlantic while Trump tries to justify his calls for the acquisition of the US in vast territory by repeatedly admitting that China and Russia have their designs on Greenland, which holds vast untapped reserves of critical minerals.

The president did not participate in Wednesday’s meeting. In an Oval Office exchange with reporters after the talks, he reiterated his commitment to gaining territory.

“We need Greenland for national security,” Trump said. He added: “We’ll see how it all goes. I think something will work.”

Before the meeting, Trump took to social media to make the case that “NATO should lead the way” for the US to gain territory.

“NATO has become more formidable and effective in Greenland in the hands of the UNITED STATES,” Trump wrote. “Anything less than that is unacceptable.”

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte wants to keep an arm’s length from the dispute between the most important power and other members of the 32-nation alliance who are afraid of the aggressive tactics that Trump has made in Denmark.

Both Løkke Rasmussen and Motzfeldt offered the measured hope that the talks had started a conversation that would lead to Trump giving up on his demands to take over the territory and pave the way for closer cooperation with the US.

“We showed where our limits are and from there, I think it’s very good to look forward,” Motzfeldt said.

Denmark is strengthening its presence in the Arctic

In Copenhagen, Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen announced the increase of Denmark’s “military presence and exercise activity” in the Arctic and North Atlantic, “in close cooperation with our allies”.

Poulsen said the increased military presence is necessary in a security environment where “no one can predict what will happen tomorrow.”

“This means that from now on and for the foreseeable future there will be an increased military presence in and around Greenland with aircraft, ships and soldiers, including from other NATO allies,” said Poulsen.

Other NATO allies have arrived in Greenland with Danish personnel, he said. Poulsen declined to name other countries contributing to an increased presence in the Arctic, saying it was up to the allies to announce their own participation.

New security commitments, at least those announced by Greenland’s allies, appear modest.

Germany said it would send 13 personnel this week to Greenland “to assess the framework for a potential military contribution” to the island. Sweden announced on Wednesday that it was sending an unspecified number of personnel to Greenland for military exercises. And two Norwegian military personnel were also sent to Greenland to take advantage of more cooperation with the allies, the country’s defense minister, Tore O. Sandviktold the newspaper VG.

NATO is also looking at how members can collectively strengthen the alliance’s presence in the Arctic, said a NATO official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The official added that there is a consensus “that the security of the High North is a priority.”

Greenlanders want the US to withdraw

Greenland is strategically important because, as climate change causes the ice to melt, it opens up the possibility of shorter trade routes to Asia. It can also be easily picked up and transported untapped deposits of critical minerals which is required for computers and telephones.

Trump said Greenland is also “important” to the United States. The Golden Dome missile defense program. He has also said he wants to expand American security to the island and has repeatedly cited what he says are threats from Russian and Chinese ships as reasons to control it.

“If we don’t come in, Russia will come in and China will come in,” Trump argued again on Wednesday. “And Denmark can’t do anything about it, but we can do everything about it.”

but experts and Greenlanders have questioned that claimand it became a hot topic on the snow-covered main street of the Greenlandic capital, where international reporters and camera crews descended as Trump continued his takeover speech.

“The only Chinese I see is when I go to the fast food market,” said heating engineer Lars Vintner. He said that he was always sailing and hunting and had never seen Russian or Chinese ships.

In interviews, the Greenlanders said the outcome of the talks in Washington did not exactly confirm the confidence that Trump could be persuaded.

“Trump is unpredictable,” said Geng Lastein, who immigrated to Greenland 18 years ago from the Philippines.

Maya Martinsen, 21, said she doesn’t buy Trump’s arguments that Greenland should be controlled by the US in order to maintain a security edge in the Arctic with China and Russia. Instead, Martinsen said, Trump is going after many of the “oils and minerals that we have that are untouched.”

Greenland “has beautiful nature and beautiful people,” Martinsen added. “I’m the only one at home. I think the Americans just see a kind of business venture.”

Denmark says the US, with its military presence, could expand its bases in Greenland. The US is party to a treaty in 1951 that gives it broad rights to establish military bases there with the consent of Denmark and Greenland.

Løkke Rasmussen and Motzfeldt, along with Denmark’s ambassador to the US, plan to meet later on Wednesday with senators from the Arctic Caucus. A bipartisan delegation of US lawmakers is also headed to Copenhagen this week to meet with Danish and Greenlandic officials.

Both Løkke Rasmussen and Motzfeldt said that while they remain at loggerheads with Trump, it remains critical to keep talking.

“It is in everyone’s interest – even if we don’t agree – that we agree to try to check whether some concerns can be accommodated while at the same time respecting the territorial integrity of the Danish kingdom and the self-determination of the Greenlandic people,” said Løkke Rasmussen.

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Burrows are reported from Nuuk, Greenland and Ciobanu from Warsaw, Poland. Associated Press writers Stefanie Dazio and Geir Moulson in Berlin, Lisa Mascaro, Aamer Madhani and Will Weissert in Washington and Catherine Gaschka in Paris contributed to this report.