Danish Overseas Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen has summoned the highest US diplomat in Copenhagen, following a report that Americans have been conducting “covert affect operations” in Greenland.
Denmark’s public broadcaster DR quoted sources as saying the goal was to infiltrate Greenland’s society and promote its secession from Denmark to the US, though it was unable to make clear whether or not the boys had been engaged on their very own.
Rasmussen mentioned in a press release that “any try to intervene within the inner affairs of the Kingdom [of Denmark] will in fact be unacceptable”, and the US cost d’affaires had been summoned in that gentle.
The BBC has approached the US embassy for remark.
Nevertheless, US President Trump has mentioned a number of occasions he desires to annex Greenland, an autonomous a part of the Kingdom of Denmark, and Vice-President JD Vance has accused Copenhagen of underinvesting within the territory.
On a go to to Greenland a number of months in the past, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen warned the US that “you can not annex one other nation”.
The US presently has no ambassador in Copenhagen, so Rasmussen has summoned Mark Stroh, who as cost d’affaires is essentially the most senior diplomat within the Danish capital.
Denmark’s international minister mentioned in a press release to the BBC that the federal government was “conscious that international actors proceed to indicate an curiosity in Greenland and its place within the Kingdom of Denmark”.
“It’s due to this fact not shocking if we expertise outdoors makes an attempt to affect the way forward for the Kingdom within the time forward,” he added.
Denmark is a member of Nato and the European Union and has lengthy seen the US as one in all its closest allies, and Danes have been shocked by Trump’s dedication to manage its semi-autonomous territory. The US president mentioned this 12 months he wouldn’t rule out seizing it by pressure.
Lars Lokke Rasmussen has already summoned the US ambassador to Denmark this 12 months in response to a separate report in Might suggesting US spy businesses had been informed to focus their efforts on Greenland.
DR’s report on Wednesday gave particulars of a go to by one American to Greenland’s capital Nuuk, saying he was in search of to compile an inventory of Greenlanders who backed US makes an attempt to take over the island. The goal can be to attempt to recruit them for a secession motion, DR mentioned.
The sooner Might report within the Wall Avenue Journal additionally referred to studying extra about Greenland’s independence motion, in addition to attitudes to American mineral extraction.
On the time, US Director of Nationwide Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard didn’t deny the report however accused the Journal of “breaking the legislation and undermining our nation’s safety and democracy”.