France, Sept. 6 -- "We are family," she said on her arrival in the island's capital, Nuuk, where she was welcomed by Greenland's Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen and his Danish counterpart Mette Frederiksen.

Throughout her trip, von der Leyen will send the message that the Danish autonomous territory belongs with Europe rather than the US.

Her agenda includes a boat outing amid the icebergs, meetings top Greenlandic and Danish officials and signing a joint statement between Greenland and the EU. US security plan for Greenland

Trump insisted earlier this year that Washington needed to control Greenland for national security reasons, though he ultimately ruled out annexing it by force.

A Danish-Greenlandic-US working group has since...