Denmark’s Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen has said on Wednesday that he will summon the US ambassador for talks after a report by Wall Street Journal claimed that American spy agencies have been asked to focus on Greenland amid US President Donald Trump’s threat to annex the island.
“I have read the article in the Wall Street Journal and it worries me greatly because we do not spy on friends,” Denmark’s Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen responded to the article by WSJ.
The report claimed that the US is stepping up its vigilance and intelligence gathering efforts over Greenland as Washington’s spy agencies were told to focus on Greenland’s independence movement, and the aim of the Trump administration to extract mineral resources from the semi-autonomous country.
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In response to the report, a US State Department spokesperson said the department doesn’t make comments on reports based on intelligence inputs and referred to an earlier comment from National Security Council spokesperson James Hewitt, who had said that President Trump has been concerned with the security of Greenland.
“We are going to call in the U.S. acting ambassador for a discussion at the foreign ministry to see if we can confirm this information, which is somewhat disturbing,” Denmark’s minister Rasmussen added, Reuters reported.
Tulsi Gabbard, Director of National Intelligence, accused WSJ of attempts to “undermine” President Trump “by politicizing and leaking classified information,” BBC reported.
Creating a diplomatic trust deficit between Denmark, Greenland and US, President Trump’s repeated statements of taking over Greenland, a semi-autonomous Danish territory in the Arctic, and the Republican leader has also refused to rule out annexation by force.
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During a speech in US Congress, Trump had said “We need Greenland for national security and international security. One way or the other, we’re gonna get it.”
Denmark and Greenland’s ruling dispensation have said that only Greenlanders can decide the territory’s future.
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