Warsaw/Oslo: Denmark’s Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen announced on Wednesday that the Danish government would summon the acting U.S. ambassador for a formal discussion following a report that Washington had instructed its intelligence agencies to intensify surveillance activities in Greenland.
Speaking to reporters during an informal EU foreign ministers’ meeting in Warsaw, Rasmussen expressed deep concern over the revelations published by The Wall Street Journal.
“I have read the article in the Wall Street Journal and it worries me greatly because we do not spy on friends,” Rasmussen said, adding, “We are going to call in the U.S. acting ambassador for a discussion at the foreign ministry to see if we can confirm this information, which is somewhat disturbing.”
According to the WSJ report, U.S. intelligence operations have been ramped up in Greenland as part of a broader strategy tied to former President Donald Trump’s controversial interest in acquiring the Arctic island. The report, citing unnamed sources, suggests that Washington’s intelligence agencies were directed to gather more information about the region’s political and economic developments.
A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department declined to comment on intelligence matters, referring instead to a prior statement from National Security Council spokesperson James Hewitt, who said Trump has been “very clear that the U.S. is concerned about the security of Greenland and the Arctic.”
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Trump’s repeated statements about potentially acquiring Greenland, a semi-autonomous territory under Danish sovereignty, triggered a diplomatic rift in 2019. His refusal to rule out the use of force in pursuit of such a goal only deepened tensions between the United States, Denmark, and Greenland.
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Both Danish and Greenlandic leaders have consistently emphasized that Greenland’s future lies solely in the hands of its people. Still, they have sought to balance rejecting Washington’s ambitions with preserving their historically close alliance with the United States.
