Denmark’s PM says US must not annex Greenland

Denmark’s prime minister Mette Frederiksen has warned that any US move to take Greenland by force would would destroy 80 years of transatlantic security links, after President Donald Trump repeated his desire to annex the mineral-rich Arctic territory.

“If the United States attacks another NATO country, then everything would be over [Danish: så hører alting op, ed.],” Frederiksen told broadcaster DR.

“That includes NATO and therefore post-World War II security,” she said in comments to broadcaster TV2.

Trump’s repeated statements that the US must annex Greenland must be taken seriously, Frederiksen said.

“If the American President means this seriously, we are now in a very serious situation,” she said.

“i can’t account for what the Americans are going to do, only for what we can do on the Danish and European side. And there is full support from Europe that borders must be respected,” she said to DR.

Denmark has active and ongoing diplomatic relations with the US, the Danish PM also stressed in a series of interviews given on Monday evening.

Frederiksen last spoke directly to Trump about the matter just under a year ago. She said the time “may be” right for a new conversation between the two, but added it would be unlikely to change the current situation.

“I would generally advise against thinking that a single activity or conversation can change this,” she said.

Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee (Udenrigspolitiske Nævn) has meanwhile been summoned to meet at 6pm in Copenhagen on Monday, news wire Ritzau reported.

The only item on the agenda for the extraordinary meeting is the “Kingdom of Denmark’s relationship with the United States.”

In a separate press briefing in Nuuk on Monday evening, Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen told Trump to back off, while several European countries and the European Union rushed to back Denmark, which has urged Washington to stop threatening a NATO ally.

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Nielsen has called for renewed contact with the US, including direct discussions with Trump and urged the Greenlandic population against panic.

“The situation is not such that the United States can conquer Greenland. That is not the case. Therefore, we must not panic. We must restore the good cooperation we once had,” Nielsen said according to AFP.

Washington’s military intervention in Venezuela has reignited fears about Trump’s designs on the autonomous Danish territory, which has untapped rare earth deposits and could be a vital player as polar ice melts, opening up new shipping routes.

“We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it,” the US leader said Sunday.

Greenland is on the shortest route for missiles between Russia and the United States, and Washington already has a military base there.

With the situation in Venezuela more pressing, “we’ll worry about Greenland in about two months,” Trump quipped Sunday before immediately changing that time frame to “20 days.”

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Nielsen then told Trump on social media: “That’s enough now. No more pressure. No more insinuations. No more fantasies of annexation.”

“We are open to dialogue,” he said. “But this must happen through the proper channels and with respect for international law.”

The US leader has ramped up pressure on Greenland over recent months, saying in December that Russian and Chinese ships were “all over” the territory’s coast.

The foreign ministry in Beijing hit back on Monday, urging Washington to “stop using the so-called China threat as an excuse to seek personal gain”.

“Navy vessels from China and Russia don’t normally disclose their position, so you can’t discount the possibility, but there are no publicly known observations of foreign warships from the fishermen who are in the area daily,” he said on the TV2 website.

Aaja Chemnitz, who represents Greenland in the Danish parliament, accused Trump of “spreading lies about Chinese and Russian warships”.

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“The people of Greenland should go into preparation mode,” she told AFP, adding that Greenlanders needed to start taking Trump much more seriously.

The controversy has drawn statements of support from around Europe, with EU foreign policy spokesperson Anitta Hipper telling reporters the bloc was committed to defending the territorial integrity of its members.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said “only Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark” could decide the territory’s future — sentiments reflected in statements from the leaders of Finland, Sweden and Norway.

France’s foreign ministry spokesman Pascal Confavreux told local TV that “borders cannot be changed by force” and added that his country felt “solidarity” with Denmark.

NATO General Secretary Mark Rutte has yet to comment on the matter, however. 

A request for comment from Rutte by Denmark’s national broadcaster DR was met with a generic response about Arctic security from an unnamed spokesperson, DR reports.

Asked by US news network CNN on Monday if the United States would rule out military intervention in Greenland, top Trump adviser Stephen Miller questioned what the “basis” is of “having Greenland as a colony of Denmark”.

Greenland is an autonomous territory within the Danish kingdom.

A survey conducted in early 2025 revealed an overwhelming majority of Greenlanders oppose annexation by the United States. A majority also favours long-term independence from Denmark.

“The United States should have Greenland as part of the United States. There’s no need to even think or talk about this in the context that you’re asking, of a military operation,” Miller said in the televised interview.

“Nobody’s going to fight the United States militarily over the future of Greenland,” Miller said.

With reporting from AFP.