Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen stated on Monday that an American takeover of Greenland would mean the end of the NATO military alliance. Her remarks were in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s renewed call for the strategic, mineral-rich Arctic island to come under U.S. control following the weekend military operation in Venezuela.
The dead-of-night operation by U.S. forces in Caracas to capture and his wife early Saturday left the world shocked and increased concerns in Denmark and Greenland, which is a semiautonomous territory of the Danish kingdom and thus part of NATO.
Frederiksen and her Greenlandic counterpart, Jens Frederik Nielsen, criticized the president’s comments and warned of catastrophic consequences. Many European leaders expressed solidarity with them.
“If the United States decides to attack another NATO country militarily, then everything halts,” Frederiksen told Danish broadcaster TV2 on Monday. “That includes our NATO and the security that has been provided since the end of World War II.”
20-day timeline heightens fears
Trump repeatedly called during his presidential transition and the early months of his second term for U.S. jurisdiction over Greenland and has not ruled out using military force to take control of the island. His comments on Sunday, including telling reporters “let’s talk about Greenland in 20 days,” further increased fears that the U.S. was planning an intervention in Greenland in the near future.
Frederiksen also said Trump “should be taken seriously” when he says he wants Greenland. “We will not accept a situation where we and Greenland are threatened like this,” she added.
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 there might be an overnight takeover of the country, and that’s why we are insisting on good cooperation,” he said.
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 Mette previously would have flatly rejected the idea of an American takeover of Greenland. But now, Rostrup wrote, the rhetoric has escalated so much that she has to acknowledge the possibility.
Trump mocks Denmark’s security efforts in Greenland
Trump also mocked Denmark’s efforts to enhance Greenland’s national security posture on Sunday, saying the Danes have added “one more dog sled” to the Arctic territory’s arsenal.
“It’s so strategic right now,” Trump told reporters on Sunday as he flew back to Washington from his home in Florida. “Greenland is full of Russian and Chinese ships everywhere.”
He added: “We need Greenland for national security reasons, and Denmark won’t 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 be seen from Greenland with or without binoculars.”
U.S. space base in northwestern Greenland
Greenlanders and Danes were further irritated this weekend by a social media post after the raid by a former Trump administration official turned podcaster, Katie Miller. The post shows an illustrated map of Greenland in the colors of the Stars and Stripes with the caption: “SOON.”
“And yes, we expect full respect for the territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark,” Ambassador Jesper Møller Sørensen, Denmark’s chief envoy to Washington, said in a post responding to Miller, who is married to Trump’s influential deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller.
The U.S. Department of Defense operates the remote Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland. It was built after a 1951 defense agreement between Denmark and the United States. It supports missile warning, missile defense, and space surveillance operations for the U.S. and NATO.
On Denmark’s mainland, the partnership between the U.S. and Denmark has been long-standing. The Danes buy American F-35 fighter jets, and just last year, Denmark’s parliament approved a bill to allow U.S. military bases on Danish soil.
Critics say the vote gave up Danish sovereignty to the U.S. The legislation expands on a previous military agreement made in 2023 with the Biden administration, where U.S. troops had broad access to Danish air bases in the Scandinavian country.
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Ciobanu reported from Warsaw, Poland, and Dazio from Berlin.