Danish prime minister says a US takeover of Greenland would mark the end
of NATO
[January 06, 2026]
By ANDERS KONGSHAUG, CLAUDIA CIOBANU and STEFANIE DAZIO
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said
Monday an American takeover of Greenland would amount to the end of the
NATO military alliance. Her comments came in response to U.S. President
Donald Trump's renewed call for the strategic, mineral-rich Arctic
island to come under U.S. control in the aftermath of the weekend
military operation in Venezuela.
The dead-of-night operation by U.S. forces in Caracas to capture leader
Nicolás Maduro and his wife early Saturday left the world stunned, and
heightened concerns in Denmark and Greenland, which is a semiautonomous
territory of the Danish kingdom and thus part of NATO.
Frederiksen and her Greenlandic counterpart, Jens Frederik Nielsen,
blasted the president's comments and warned of catastrophic
consequences. Numerous European leaders expressed solidarity with them.
“If the United States chooses to attack another NATO country militarily,
then everything stops,” Frederiksen told Danish broadcaster TV2 on
Monday. “That is, including our NATO and thus the security that has been
provided since the end of the Second World War.”
20-day timeline deepens fears
Trump called repeatedly during his presidential transition and the early
months of his second term for U.S. jurisdiction over Greenland, and has
not ruled out military force to take control of the island. His comments
Sunday, including telling reporters “let’s talk about Greenland in 20
days,” further deepened fears that the U.S. was planning an intervention
in Greenland in the near future.
Frederiksen also said Trump “should be taken seriously” when he says he
wants Greenland. “We will not accept a situation where we and Greenland
are threatened in this way,” she added.
Nielsen, in a news conference Monday, said Greenland cannot be compared
to Venezuela. He urged his constituents to stay calm and united.
“We are not in a situation where we think that there might be a takeover
of the country overnight and that is why we are insisting that we want
good cooperation,” he said.
Nielsen added: “The situation is not such that the United States can
simply conquer Greenland.”
Ask Rostrup, a TV2 political journalist, wrote on the station's live
blog Monday that Mette previously would have flatly rejected the idea of
an American takeover of Greenland. But now, Rostrup wrote, the rhetoric
has escalated so much that she has to acknowledge the possibility.
Trump slams Denmark's security efforts in Greenland
Trump on Sunday also mocked Denmark’s efforts at boosting Greenland’s
national security posture, saying the Danes have added “one more dog
sled” to the Arctic territory’s arsenal.
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Greenland's Prime Minister Jens Frederik Nielsen holds a press
conference in Nuuk, Greenland, Monday, Jan. 5, 2026. (Oscar Scott
Carl/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)
“It’s so strategic right now,” Trump had told reporters Sunday as he
flew back to Washington from his home in Florida. “Greenland is
covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place.”
He added: “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national
security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it."
But Ulrik Pram Gad, a global security expert from the Danish
Institute for International Studies, wrote in a report last year
that “there are indeed Russian and Chinese ships in the Arctic, but
these vessels are too far away to see from Greenland with or without
binoculars.”
U.S. space base in northwestern Greenland
Greenlanders and Danes were further rankled this weekend by a social
media post following the raid by a former Trump administration
official turned podcaster, Katie Miller. The post shows an
illustrated map of Greenland in the colors of the Stars and Stripes
accompanied by the caption: “SOON.”
“And yes, we expect full respect for the territorial integrity of
the Kingdom of Denmark,” Ambassador Jesper Møller Sørensen,
Denmark’s chief envoy to Washington, said in a post responding to
Miller, who is married to Trump’s influential deputy chief of staff
Stephen Miller.
The U.S. Department of Defense operates the remote Pituffik Space
Base in northwestern Greenland. It was built following a 1951
defense agreement between Denmark and the United States. It supports
missile warning, missile defense and space surveillance operations
for the U.S. and NATO.
On Denmark’s mainland, the partnership between the U.S. and Denmark
has been long-lasting. The Danes buy American F-35 fighter jets and
just last year, Denmark’s parliament approved a bill to allow U.S.
military bases on Danish soil.
Critics say the vote ceded Danish sovereignty to the U.S. The
legislation widens a previous military agreement, made in 2023 with
the Biden administration, where U.S. troops had broad access to
Danish air bases in the Scandinavian country.
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Ciobanu reported from Warsaw, Poland, and Dazio from Berlin.
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