COPENHAGEN: Denmark’s foreign minister has summoned the top United States diplomat in Copenhagen over Danish intelligence reports that US citizens have been conducting covert influence operations in Greenland, the ministry said on Wednesday (Aug 27).
Public broadcaster DR cited unnamed sources as saying the government believed at least three US nationals with ties to President Donald Trump’s administration had been involved in influence operations aimed at promoting Greenland’s secession from Denmark to the US.
“We are aware that foreign actors continue to show an interest in Greenland and its position in the Kingdom of Denmark,” Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said in a statement.
“It is therefore not surprising if we experience outside attempts to influence the future of the Kingdom in the time ahead,” Rasmussen said.
Neither the broadcaster nor the ministry named the individuals flagged in the intelligence reports.
The US embassy in Copenhagen did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump has said he wants the US to take over Greenland, a semi-autonomous Danish territory rich in minerals and strategically located in the Arctic, for reasons of national and international security, and has not ruled out the use of force to do so.
His proposal has been firmly rejected in both Copenhagen and Nuuk, Greenland’s capital.
While Trump also has since expressed respect for Greenland’s right to determine its own future, his comments about potentially taking the territory by force have fuelled uncertainty among its 57,000 inhabitants.
