BERLIN, Jan 9, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - Germany's foreign minister plans to visit Washington and meet US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday, a ministry spokeswoman said in Berlin.

The talks between Johann Wadephul and Rubio come amid tensions over US President Donald Trump's threats to seize Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark.

"The main topics of the trip are our bilateral relations with the US, continued support for Ukraine in light of Russia's war of aggression, and transatlantic security and defence policy," the foreign ministry spokeswoman said on Friday.

Before reaching Washington, Wadephul plans to make a stopover in Reykjavik to meet Icelandic Foreign Minister Thorgerdur Katrin Gunnarsdottir on Sunday evening.

Wadephul's flight onward to Washington will likely take him over Greenland, a sparsely populated but strategically important island in the Arctic that Trump claims the US "needs" to control.

The ministry spokeswoman did not directly address whether the German foreign minister would discuss Greenland's status with Rubio, but said that "relevant foreign and security policy issues will also be on the agenda".

German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil also plans to be in Washington on Monday for a US-hosted gathering to discuss access to critical raw materials.

"The resilience of global supply chains and access to critical raw materials are key issues for us," a finance ministry spokesman said in Berlin while announcing the trip. "We are committed to rules-based trade."

Klingbeil also plans "to touch on the subject of Greenland and other current political issues" while in the US capital, the spokesman said.

Klingbeil, who also serves as vice chancellor, is the leader of the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), the junior coalition partners to Chancellor Friedrich Merz's conservatives."