{"id":22242,"date":"2026-02-23T19:29:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T19:29:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/22242\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T19:29:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T19:29:20","slug":"trumps-dispute-with-denmark-over-greenland-far-from-over-warns-intelligence-expert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/22242\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump’s dispute with Denmark over Greenland ‘far from over’, warns intelligence expert"},"content":{"rendered":"

Denmark is used to the cold, but this winter has been different.<\/p>\n

The capital Copenhagen is thawing from its most frigid January in 16 years, but the geopolitical climate is turning frostier.<\/p>\n

US President Donald Trump’s threats to seize Greenland have left Danes feeling the chill from a once-staunch NATO ally.<\/p>\n

“This sense of betrayal is really out in the open now,” says former chief analyst of the Danish Defence Intelligence Service, Jacob Kaarsbo.<\/p>\n

“There’s a sense of a stab in the back.”<\/p>\n

The US president has since walked back talk of military action to take Greenland, but Jacob warns the issue is “far from over”.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Danish intelligence analyst Jacob Kaarsbo says the Greenland feud is “far from over”. (Foreign Correspondent: Greg Nelson)<\/p>\n

“The trouble is Donald Trump is not going to get what he wants” from the current diplomatic process, he tells Foreign Correspondent<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Last month, Trump claimed he had struck a “framework” deal with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, who later clarified the talks were about security, not sovereignty.<\/p>\n

Denmark is still in discussions with Trump administration officials but has repeatedly said US ownership of Greenland is not on the table.<\/p>\n

“[Trump] wants control over Greenland and he’s not going to get it,” Mr Kaarsbo said.<\/p>\n

“We’ll just have to see what he does then, because he’ll have the next move. Will that be to threaten militarily again? We don’t know. So we have to be prepared.”<\/p>\n

Mr Kaarsbo fears the country is facing the biggest threat to its sovereignty since the Second World War.<\/p>\n

\"Homes<\/p>\n

Greenland is a Danish autonomous territory in the Arctic with strategic importance and mineral wealth. (Foreign Correspondent: Greg Nelson)<\/p>\n

Denmark now finds itself exposed on two fronts \u2014 from an old foe, Russia, and an old ally in the United States.<\/p>\n

“America is a formal ally because NATO still exists, but that’s on paper. In reality it’s not an ally. It’s not someone we can depend on,” Mr Kaarsbo said.<\/p>\n

“[Denmark is] in a precarious position and we are under pressure both from the east and the west, and we have to handle it.”<\/p>\n

Denmark’s dangerous neighbourhood<\/p>\n

Even before the US started threatening Denmark’s most westerly territory in January, Danes were on edge.<\/p>\n

Countries across the Baltic Sea region have been on high alert over a growing threat in the east, Russia.<\/p>\n

NATO has long suspected Russia’s ambitions go beyond Ukraine, with Mr Rutte warning it could attack a NATO country within five years.<\/p>\n

“We are Russia’s next target and we are already in harm’s way,” Mr Rutte said in December.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We must be prepared for the scale of war our grandparents or great-grandparents endured.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A Swedish flagged NATO warship patrols the Baltic Sea. (Foreign Correspondent: Greg Nelson)<\/p>\n

Those fears have been stoked by a Russian campaign to covertly menace its neighbours across the region.<\/p>\n

Russia is accused of launching “hybrid” or “grey zone” warfare, where a hostile state carries out indirect attacks designed to intimidate, sow panic and disrupt daily life.<\/p>\n

Denmark has been a target, suffering a spate of drone incursions and cyber attacks.<\/p>\n

Watch Foreign Correspondent tonight at 8pm on ABC TV as the program follows Denmark’s response to the NATO security crisis.<\/p>\n

In September, drones were detected in the skies around six airports, including Copenhagen’s main airport, forcing three to shut down.<\/p>\n

“This is the most serious attack on Danish critical infrastructure to date,” Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said at the time.<\/p>\n

While Russian President Vladimir Putin has been coy about claiming responsibility for the hybrid attacks, Ms Frederiksen has little doubt who is behind them.<\/p>\n

\"Putin<\/p>\n

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been accused of waging hybrid war against NATO countries. (Reuters: Sputnik\/Vyacheslav Prokofyev)<\/p>\n

“It must be clear now to everyone \u2014 Russia will not stop until they are forced to do so,” she told a gathering of European leaders last October.<\/p>\n

There is a view in Denmark that Russia’s shadowy campaign is a form of payback for the country’s leading role in supporting and financing Ukraine.<\/p>\n

There are also fears these attacks could be merely a prelude to more open hostility, even invasion.<\/p>\n

The other island worrying Denmark<\/p>\n

That scenario would likely play out on Bornholm, an island in the heart of the Baltic Sea on Denmark’s most easterly flank.<\/p>\n

Bornholm is one of the closest pieces of Danish territory to Russia.<\/p>\n

Surrounded by rocky coastlines and beautiful beaches, locals call the popular tourist destination “sunshine island.”<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

The island of Bornholm is one of Denmark’s closest territories to Russia. (Foreign Correspondent: Greg Nelson)<\/p>\n

But it has a darker history.<\/p>\n

At the end of World War II, Bornholm was under Russian occupation for nearly a year before being handed back to Denmark.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now some of its residents, including the curator of the local museum Jakob Seerup, fear history could be about to repeat itself.<\/p>\n

As things stand, Mr Seerup said it would be “all too easy” for Russia to occupy Bornholm again.<\/p>\n

“Bornholm could be seized in a night by a contingent of Russian soldiers. That sounds like some wild Tom Clancy novel, but it is actually within the realm of possibilities,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Local historian Jakob Seerup fears Bornholm is vulnerable to Russian invasion. (Foreign Correspondent: Greg Nelson)<\/p>\n

The island also sits just 350 kilometres from Kaliningrad, a Russian exclave between Poland and Lithuania, and one of the most militarised places in Europe.<\/p>\n

It is home to Russian warships and long-range missiles.<\/p>\n

Mr Seerup believes those missiles could easily reach Bornholm.<\/p>\n

“We know they have deployed fighter bombers that can launch Iskander missiles, like nuclear-capable missiles,” he said.<\/p>\n

Denmark is so worried Russia could attack Bornholm that it is stationing a permanent battalion of troops on the island for the first time in decades.<\/p>\n

It is part of a wider military build-up now taking place across the country.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has declared Denmark must “re-arm massively” as it muscles up to Russia.<\/p>\n

There is a sense of urgency in the process.<\/p>\n

Denmark has expanded its mandatory conscription program to include women for the first time and nearly tripled the length of its mandatory military service from four to 11 months.<\/p>\n

“I think everyone would like to have no war, but that might not be the reality,” the head of conscription for the Danish Army, Colonel Kenneth Str\u00f8m, told Foreign Correspondent.<\/p>\n

“[Conscripting women] is obviously to have enough boots on the ground. We need all the best young men and women in the armed forces.”<\/p>\n

The recruitment drive aims to grow Denmark’s reserve army from about 5,000 annual conscripts to about 7,500 by 2033.<\/p>\n

Denmark is ramping up its military spending too.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A Danish warship patrols the coast of Nuuk, Greenland, in January. (Reuters: Mads Claus Rasmussen)<\/p>\n

The national defence budget has grown to almost $23 billion as the country invests in more F-35 jets, long-range missiles, drones and ships.<\/p>\n

Denmark’s falling out with the US over Greenland has left it all the more exposed to Russia, says intelligence analyst Jacob Kaarsbo, by exposing deep divisions between the US and Europe.<\/p>\n

“I’m sure Putin would be delighted with what he’s seeing, this whole rupture of NATO and rupture between Europe and the US,” Mr Kaarsbo said.<\/p>\n

It’s “what the Kremlin has been striving for for many years”.<\/p>\n

A pivotal moment for NATO<\/p>\n

For now, Greenland has been a “wake-up call” and “a pivotal turning point” for NATO members like Denmark, Mr Kaarsbo said.<\/p>\n

He warns that US threats to invade an ally is “likely the end of NATO as we know it” and that Europe must now forge a military alliance that does not rely on the US.<\/p>\n

“The issue of Greenland was really so fundamental,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I think there’s much more of a realisation now that the Europeans have to take care of European security on their own, and then we’ll see what the US does.”<\/p>\n

Loading…<\/p>\n

He said that would involve ramping up Europe’s defence industrial base to become less reliant on US weapons and developing a command structure that can function independently.<\/p>\n

Greenland has also exposed the failure of a more compliant approach to diplomacy with the US president, Mr Kaarsbo said, with European leaders already taking a harder line.<\/p>\n

“They see this whole idea of treating Trump as a ‘royal highness’ doesn’t work because the pressure will continue,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The question Europeans should ask themselves is how do we stand up to Russia without the US? Because we can’t rely on a partner that is unreliable, so we need to figure it out.”<\/p>\n

With threats to the east and the west, it is a question Denmark is now racing to answer.<\/p>\n

Watch NATO Under Attack tonight on Foreign Correspondent at 8pm on ABC TV, ABC iview<\/a> and YouTube.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Denmark is used to the cold, but this winter has been different. The capital Copenhagen is thawing from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22243,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[15030,26,184,57,75],"class_list":["post-22242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-greenland","tag-bornholm","tag-denmark","tag-donald-trump","tag-greenland","tag-trump"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22242\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}