Danish PM says US takeover of Greenland would mark end of Nato

Anders Kongshaug, Claudia Ciobanu and Stefanie Dazio, Associated Press

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has said an American takeover of Greenland would amount to the end of the Nato military alliance.

Her comments came in response to US President Donald Trump’s renewed call for the strategic, mineral-rich Arctic island to come under US control in the aftermath of the weekend military operation in Venezuela.

The dead-of-night operation by US forces in Caracas to capture leader Nicolas Maduro and his wife early on Saturday left the world stunned, and heightened concerns in Denmark and Greenland, which is a semi-autonomous territory of the Danish kingdom and thus part of Nato.

Ms Frederiksen and her Greenlandic counterpart, Jens Frederik Nielsen, condemned the president’s comments and warned of catastrophic consequences.

Numerous European leaders expressed solidarity with them.

“If the United States chooses to attack another Nato country militarily, then everything stops,” Ms Frederiksen told Danish broadcaster TV2 on Monday.

“That is, including our Nato and thus the security that has been provided since the end of the Second World War.”

Mr Trump called repeatedly during his presidential transition and the early months of his second term for US jurisdiction over Greenland, and has not ruled out military force to take control of the island.

His comments on Sunday, including telling reporters “let’s talk about Greenland in 20 days”, further deepened fears that the US was planning an intervention in Greenland in the near future.

Ms Frederiksen also said Mr Trump “should be taken seriously” when he says he wants Greenland.

“We will not accept a situation where we and Greenland are threatened in this way,” she added.

Mr Nielsen, in a news conference on Monday, said Greenland cannot be compared to Venezuela.

He urged his constituents to stay calm and united.

“We are not in a situation where we think that there might be a takeover of the country overnight and that is why we are insisting that we want good co-operation,” he said.

Mr Nielsen added: “The situation is not such that the United States can simply conquer Greenland.”

Ask Rostrup, a TV2 political journalist, wrote on the station’s live blog on Monday that Ms Frederiksen previously would have flatly rejected the idea of an American takeover of Greenland.

Escalated 

But now, Mr Rostrup wrote, the rhetoric has escalated so much that she has to acknowledge the possibility.

Mr Trump on Sunday also mocked Denmark’s efforts at boosting Greenland’s national security posture, saying the Danes have added “one more dog sled” to the Arctic territory’s arsenal.

“It’s so strategic right now,” Mr Trump had told reporters on Sunday as he flew back to Washington from his home in Florida.

“Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place.”

He added: “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it.”

But Ulrik Pram Gad, a global security expert from the Danish Institute for International Studies, wrote in a report last year that “there are indeed Russian and Chinese ships in the Arctic, but these vessels are too far away to see from Greenland with or without binoculars”.

Greenlanders and Danes were further rankled this weekend by a social media post following the raid by a former Trump administration official-turned-podcaster, Katie Miller.

The post shows an illustrated map of Greenland in the colours of the Stars and Stripes accompanied by the caption: “SOON.”

“And yes, we expect full respect for the territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark,” ambassador Jesper Moller Sorensen, Denmark’s chief envoy to Washington, said in a post responding to Ms Miller, who is married to Mr Trump’s influential deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller.

Space base

The US Department of Defence operates the remote Pituffik Space Base in north-western Greenland.

It was built following a 1951 defence agreement between Denmark and the United States.

It supports missile warning, missile defence and space surveillance operations for the US and Nato.

On Denmark’s mainland, the partnership between the US and Denmark has been long-lasting.

The Danes buy American F-35 fighter jets, and just last year Denmark’s parliament approved a bill to allow US military bases on Danish soil.

Critics say the vote ceded Danish sovereignty to the US.

The legislation widens a previous military agreement, made in 2023 with the Biden administration, where US troops had broad access to Danish air bases in the Scandinavian country.