Denmark has summoned the United States charge d’affaires for talks over Danish intelligence reports that US citizens have been conducting covert influence operations in Greenland.
The US currently has no Ambassador in Copenhagen, so Denmark’s Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen summoned Mark Stroh, who as charge d’affaires is the most senior diplomat in the Danish capital.
The diplomat was summoned on Wednesday after Denmark’s main national broadcaster reported that the government believed that at least three people with connections to Donald Trump’s administration have been carrying out covert influence operations aimed at promoting Greenland’s secession from Denmark to the United States.
The broadcaster’s report gave details of a visit by one American to Greenland’s capital Nuuk, saying that he was seeking to compile a list of Greenlanders who backed US attempts to take over the island. It added that the aim would be to try to recruit them for a secession movement.
An earlier May report in the Wall Street Journal also referred to learning more about Greenland’s independence movement, as well as attitudes to American mineral extraction.
Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said in a statement, “We are aware that foreign actors continue to show an interest in Greenland and its position in the Kingdom of Denmark.”
“It is therefore not surprising if we experience outside attempts to influence the future of the Kingdom in the time ahead.
“Any attempt to interfere in the internal affairs of the Kingdom will of course be unacceptable.”
Lars Lokke Rasmussen
Rasmussen added that he had “asked the Foreign Ministry to summon the US charge d’affaires for a meeting at the ministry.”
Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has repeatedly said the US needs the strategically located, resource-rich island semi autonomous Danish territory for security reasons, and has refused to rule out the use of force to secure it.
According to a January opinion poll, the majority of Greenland’s 57,000 people want to become independent from Denmark, but do not wish to become part of the United States.
In the wake of Trump’s proposal, Denmark has sought to bolster its relations with Greenland, a former colony but now a self-governing territory within the Kingdom of Denmark, rallying European support.
In a show of solidarity, French President Emmanuel Macron visited Greenland in June and was greeted by hundreds of locals. That contrasted with the reception received by US Vice President, JD Vance in March, when protests forced him to visit a remote US airbase and scrap plans for his wife to attend a dogsled race.
Greenland Named Target For Influence Campaigns
Denmark’s national security and intelligence service, PET, said in a statement it considers “that Greenland, especially in the current situation, is a target for influence campaigns of various kinds.”
It added that this could be done by exploiting existing or invented disagreements, for example, in connection with known single issues or by promoting or reinforcing certain views in Greenland regarding the Kingdom of Denmark and the United States or other countries with a special interest in Greenland.
Rasmussen denounced any efforts to undermine the relation between Denmark and Greenland.
“If anyone thinks they can influence it by creating a ‘fifth column’ or that type of activity, then it is contrary to the way states cooperate…It is important for us to speak out very clearly against the United States.”
Lars Lokke Rasmussen
Denmark’s Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen has previously called for increased Arctic defence collaboration with the US, and firmly dismissed Washington’s desire to annex the territory. “If you want to be more present in Greenland, Greenland and Denmark is ready and if you would like to strengthen the security in the Arctic just like us, then let us do it together,” Frederiksen said in April.
READ ALSO: Absa Bank Crowned Bancassurance Leader at 2025 Ghana Insurance Awards
