Copenhagen, August 28 (HS): Diplomatic tensions flared between Washington and Copenhagen after Denmark summoned the top US envoy over explosive claims that Americans had been running covert influence operations in Greenland to promote its secession from Denmark and eventual annexation by the United States.
Danish broadcaster DR reported that alleged operatives sought to infiltrate Greenlandic society, build lists of pro-US sympathizers, and quietly stoke separatist sentiment. While US officials would not confirm an active campaign, a White House spokesperson dismissed Danish concerns bluntly: “We think the Danes need to calm down.”
Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen warned that any attempt to interfere in the domestic affairs of the Kingdom of Denmark was “unacceptable.” Denmark’s intelligence service PET has already cautioned that Greenland faces “various kinds of influence campaigns,” including disinformation designed to create rifts between Nuuk and Copenhagen.
The row comes against the backdrop of President Donald Trump’s longstanding interest in acquiring Greenland, a semi-autonomous Arctic territory rich in natural resources and strategically close to trans-Atlantic naval routes. Both Trump and Vice-President JD Vance have accused Copenhagen of neglecting investment in the island, where the US maintains key military facilities.
Greenland’s leaders, however, remain resolute. Premier Jens-Frederik Nielsen declared earlier this year: “We don’t belong to anyone else. We decide our own future.” Polls show little appetite among Greenlanders to join the US, despite support for eventual independence from Denmark.
Analysts described Denmark’s decision to summon the US chargé d’affaires as a symbolic “diplomatic yellow card” — unprecedented in the two allies’ relations. As one Copenhagen professor put it: “This hostile attitude from Washington is shocking. For a pro-American country like Denmark, the question is: why are you doing this?”
The confrontation deepens friction on two fronts: fears of Arctic power plays and US hostility toward Denmark’s clean energy industry, already visible in Trump’s recent order halting Orsted’s Revolution Wind project off Rhode Island.
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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar
