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When Copenhagen signed a new defence agreement giving the US “unhindered access” to Danish airbases in December 2023, the idea of granting sweeping powers to US forces on Danish soil was quite a different proposition to what it is today.
The US, then under the Biden administration, was an unwavering Nato ally that Denmark had followed into wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Nordic neighbours Sweden, Finland and Norway had similar agreements with the US.
But then Donald Trump returned to power, making an unprecedented push to acquire or seize Greenland, a strategically vital part of the Danish kingdom. He has refused to rule out using military force to take over the island, and US intelligence agencies have reportedly been ordered to increase espionage in the territory.
Now, little more than a year on, as Denmark prepares to adopt the agreement next month after a vote in parliament on 11 June, when it is expected to be approved, fears are growing about its potential implications.
The deal means US soldiers will be in Denmark under US jurisdiction, meaning that if they were to commit a crime anywhere in Denmark they would in the first instance be punished under the US, not Danish, legal system.
It also gives US soldiers access to Danish airbases in three Danish cities – Karup, Skrydstrup and Aalborg – and gives American soldiers and military police powers over Danish civilians at these locations and outside them.
And it allows the US to carry out military activities in and from Denmark – including stationing personnel, storing military material and equipment, maintenance, training and exercise activities.
“If the bill is passed, we risk that American soldiers will have the right to crack down on a demonstration outside one of their bases, in order to maintain security and control of the base,” Peter Vedel Kessing, a senior researcher at the Danish Institute for Human Rights, which has advised the defence committee on legal issues, told the Guardian. “If armed American soldiers use excessive force against demonstrators, Denmark will not have the possibility to prosecute them.”
He added: “If the bill is passed and American soldiers carry out illegal acts in Denmark, it will be beyond Danish control and outside the reach of the Danish legal system to prosecute such actions.”
The bill should not be passed, said Vedel Kessing, until there was “certainty” that the agreement did not violate “the unwritten constitutional prohibition that forbids other states, including the US, from exercising official authority on Danish territory”.
Alarm bells were raised last month when a ministry of defence consultation note said that Americans would be given the right to “exercise powers over civilians on Danish territory if necessary for the use, operation and defence of, and control over, the agreed facilities and areas by the American forces”.
At the time, the Danish unity party called the new US powers “alarming”. The party’s foreign affairs spokesperson, Trine Pertou Mach, told Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten: “It is quite far-reaching that we are handing over law enforcement powers to a foreign country’s military police.”
According to the agreement it is irrevocable for 10 years. But last week, the Danish foreign minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, said that if the US were to take over Greenland, Denmark would be able to pull out early.
“It goes without saying that a complete or partial American annexation of Greenland would entitle Denmark to terminate the defence cooperation agreement,” he wrote in a parliamentary response.
The Danish ministry of defence told the Guardian that the new agreement would “authorise the US forces to exercise all rights and authority necessary for US forces’ use, operation, defence or control of agreed facilities and areas.” It would, they said, include “taking proportionate measures to maintain or restore order and to protect US forces, US contractors, Danish contractors and dependents”.
The spokesperson said these rights and authorities must be exercised in accordance with security plans that have been coordinated with appropriate authorities of Denmark.
“The Danish authorities will oversee how the security plans are implemented in practice in cooperation with US forces. The authority given to US forces on Danish territory according to article 6 is therefore not unlimited,” the spokesperson added.
“Finally, it is important to mention that the agreement specifies that, as a general principle for the agreement in its entirety, all activities under it are to be conducted with full respect for the sovereignty, constitution and constitutional practice, laws, and international legal obligations of Denmark.”
