New Delhi: The Danish foreign ministry summoned US envoy Mark Stroh Wednesday after the country’s public broadcaster DR reported that American citizens were carrying out covert “influence operations” in Greenland.
According to the report, three men gathered information on local Trump supporters in an attempt to build backing for US control of the island. DR, citing sources in Greenland and the US, said it was not clear if they were acting under government orders or on their own.
“We are aware that foreign actors continue to show an interest in Greenland and its position in the Kingdom of Denmark,” Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen told reporters. “Any attempt to interfere in the internal affairs of the Kingdom will, of course, be unacceptable.”
Greenland, a vast and resource-rich island in the Atlantic, is a self-governing territory within Denmark. Trump has repeatedly said he wants to annex it, arguing that US security depends on such a move. Both Denmark and Greenland firmly oppose the idea.
The DR report said that during a visit to Nuuk, one of the three American men compiled a list of Greenlanders who support President Donald Trump. The purpose of the list was to identify people who could be recruited into a “secessionist movement” aimed at separating Greenland from Denmark.
They also allegedly created a counter-list of Greenlanders who are critical of the United States. One of the men reportedly asked locals to point out issues that could cast Denmark in a negative light in the American media.
The two other Americans are said to have kept in contact with politicians, business leaders and ordinary citizens. Authorities fear those connections could be used to secretly advance Trump’s goal of bringing Greenland under U.S. control.
The US State Department distanced itself from reports that three Americans with ties to Trump travelled to Greenland to push the territory toward breaking away from Denmark.
“The US Government does not control or direct the actions of private citizens,” it said in a statement. “The President, the Vice-President, and the Secretary of State have all been clear: the United States respects the right of the people of Greenland to determine their own future.”
The Danish foreign minister has summoned the US chargé d’affaires twice this year. In May, Rasmussen called in Stroh after reports suggested American spy agencies were focusing more heavily on Greenland.
The US does not currently have an ambassador in Copenhagen. So Rasmussen summoned Stroh, the chargé d’affaires and the highest-ranking American diplomat in Denmark.
A May report in The Wall Street Journal also suggested that US spy agencies were studying Greenland’s independence movement and its mineral wealth.
At the time, US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard did not deny the report but accused the WSJ of “breaking the law and undermining our nation’s security and democracy”.
Greenland has been at the center of repeated disputes since Trump said he wanted to buy the island. Earlier this year, he even said he would not rule out taking it by force.
US Vice-President J.D. Vance has accused Denmark of failing to invest enough in Greenland. In April, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen pushed back, saying, “You cannot annex another country.”
Greenland has had broad self-government since 1979, but Denmark still handles its foreign and defence policy. The island hosts the US Pituffik Space Base, which provides missile warning and space surveillance. It is also rich in rare-earth minerals and contains vast reserves of untapped oil and natural gas, though extraction has historically been difficult.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
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