COPENHAGEN, DENMARK — Denmark acknowledged Thursday that it had long neglected the defense of Greenland, a vast and strategically important Arctic island – and one that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has called vital for U.S. security.
Trump, who takes office Jan. 20, said this week that U.S. control of Greenland – a sovereign Danish territory – was an “absolute necessity,” and he did not rule out using military or economic action against Denmark to make it happen.
“We have neglected for many years to make the necessary investments in ships and in aircraft that will help monitor our kingdom, and that is what we are now trying to do something about,” Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen told journalists.
The U.S. Embassy in Copenhagen said earlier Thursday that the United States had no plans to increase its military presence in Greenland.
“There are no plans to increase the United States’ current military footprint in Greenland,” the spokesperson told Reuters. “We will continue to work closely with Copenhagen and Nuuk [Greenland’s capital] to ensure any proposals meet our common security needs.”
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said late Thursday that she had asked for a meeting with Trump but did not expect one to happen ahead of his inauguration.
US military presence
Greenland has been controlled by Denmark for centuries, though its 57,000 people now govern their own domestic affairs. Its security and foreign affairs, however, are still handled by Copenhagen.
The U.S. military maintains a permanent presence at the Pituffik Space Base in Greenland’s northwest.
Greenland is crucial for the U.S. military and its ballistic missile early-warning system, since the shortest route from Europe to North America runs via the island.
“I think that the Americans are quite concerned that Russia could actually launch or initiate a major attack against the United States, and that could be done from the Russian side,” Jens Wenzel at Nordic Defense Analysis told Reuters.
“There is no real monitoring of the airspace in Greenland. It is largely a free-for-all,” he said.
Greenland is already covered by U.S. security guarantees via Denmark’s membership in NATO.
Frederiksen said this week that she could not imagine the United States would use military intervention in Greenland and said it was up to the people of Greenland to decide what they want.
‘Tightrope’
Frederiksen summoned leaders of Denmark’s political parties to a meeting Thursday for a briefing about Trump’s renewed interest. She rebuffed an offer from him in 2019 to buy Greenland.
On Wednesday, Frederiksen hosted Greenland’s leader, Mute Egede, for talks in Copenhagen. Egede favors independence for his homeland and has said it is not for sale.
Egede discussed trade and other issues with the outgoing U.S. ambassador in Copenhagen on Wednesday, the embassy said.
Last month, Trump said he had picked Ken Howery as the new U.S. envoy to Denmark. As a co-founder of PayPal, Howery is considered a member of the group of former workers and executives at the digital finance firm that includes prominent Trump supporters Peter Thiel and Elon Musk.
“They’re walking a tightrope,” said Lin Alexandra Mortensgaard, a Greenland expert at the Danish Institute for International Studies, referring to the Danish and Greenland prime ministers.
“It’s a balance between representing an autonomous territory and representing a sovereign state while still taking the requirements of Denmark’s closest ally seriously,” she said.
Denmark’s European allies France and Germany have responded to Trump’s comments by stressing the inviolability of borders.
British Foreign Minister David Lammy said Thursday that he believed Trump recognized Greenland was part of Denmark and that concerns about Russian and Chinese activity in the Arctic lay behind the U.S. president-elect’s remarks.
The Kremlin said Thursday that Moscow was following closely the “dramatic development” on Greenland and that the Arctic fell within Russia’s zone of strategic national interests.
In Greenland, opinions on the island’s future appear divided, with some warmly welcoming Trump’s remarks and others responding skeptically.
Danish lawmakers across the political spectrum have urged Frederiksen, a Social Democrat, to firmly reject any attempt by foreign powers to undermine Greenland’s status.
“The U.S. wants to take over Denmark’s role in Greenland, and the Danish government must say a clear and unequivocal no to that,” former conservative minister Rasmus Jarlov said on X.
Meanwhile, the screenwriter of the hit Danish TV drama series “Borgen,” Adam Price, joked on Instagram that it was becoming “increasingly difficult to write political fiction when real-life politics are becoming more and more extreme.”
“All that’s left is to get some popcorn,” he added.
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