Denmark’s foreign minister summoned the top U.S. diplomat in his country amid allegations of Americans pursuing influence operations in Greenland.
“We are aware that foreign actors continue to show an interest in Greenland and its position in the Kingdom of Denmark,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said in a statement. “It is therefore not surprising if we experience outside attempts to influence the future of the Kingdom in the time ahead.”
“Any attempt to interfere in the internal affairs of the Kingdom will of course be unacceptable,” he added. “In that light, I have asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to summon the U.S. chargé d’affaires for a meeting at the Ministry.”
That American diplomat is Mark Stroh, who was photographed entering the ministry of foreign affairs in Copenhagen on Wednesday.
It’s easy to see why such allegations are unnerving to Danish officials.
President Donald Trump has openly and repeatedly discussed his fantasy of taking over mineral-rich Greenland — a Danish territory — and hasn’t ruled out using military force to acquire it. Notably, the president’s allies in Big Tech could see an expansion of their wealth and power if his attempted land grab were to succeed. And in May, NBC News reported that officials in the Trump administration ordered top spy agencies to ramp up intelligence-gathering regarding Greenland.
The sequence of events certainly smacks of attempted regime change. And that was the backdrop of a recent report from Danish outlet DR, which alleged that three men with ties to the Trump administration — the outlet said it knows their names but declined to identify them — have been carrying out influence operations in Greenland. DR reported that one of the men compiled a list of Trump supporters in the region, potentially as part of an effort to fuel a secessionist movement, as well as a list of Greenlanders critical of the U.S.
The outlet was unable to determine whether the men were acting on their own or under official guidance, but added that the U.S. Embassy in Copenhagen sent a response suggesting that the men were acting on their own. The State Department did not immediately respond to MSNBC’s request for comment.
While the report surely was jarring to officials in Denmark — a NATO ally, after all — a great many Americans might be disturbed to learn of potential U.S. meddling in the region, as well: An April poll from ABC News and The Washington Post found a whopping 76 percent of Americans oppose the administration’s efforts to take control of Greenland.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
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