4 hours ago
3
Danish intelligence services have accused the US of using its economic power to “assert its will” and threatening military force against its allies.
The comments, made in its annual assessment released this week, mark the first time that the Danish Defence Intelligence Service (DDIS) has listed the US as a threat to the country. Denmark, the report warns, is “facing more and more serious threats and security policy challenges than in many years”.
The report said that the US is “now using its economic and technological strength as a means of power, including against allies and partners”.
Competition between superpowers Russia, China and the US, it said, is “increasingly taking place in the Arctic” which is growing in strategic importance amid increasing tensions between Russia and the west. This, it notes, poses a specific threat to Denmark, which used to rule Greenland as a colony and continues to control its foreign and security policy.
“The increased great power competition in the Arctic has significantly increased international attention to the region,” it said. “This applies in particular to the United States’ increasing interest in Greenland and its importance to US national security.”
It adds: “At the same time, the attention increases the threat from espionage, including cyber espionage, and attempts to further influence all parts of the kingdom of Denmark.” Greenland remains part of the Danish commonwealth or kingdom.
Last week, the new US National Security Strategy policy document, with an introduction signed by Trump, claimed that Europe faces “civilisational erasure” within the next two decades as a result of migration and EU integration, arguing that the US must “cultivate resistance” within the continent to “Europe’s current trajectory”.
It came at a time of already heightened tension between the US and Denmark after Trump’s repeated assertions over the past year that he wants to take control of Greenland.
Earlier this year, vice-president JD Vance visited US military base Pituffik and accused Denmark of having “not done a good job” in Greenland. In August, an alleged US influence campaign in Greenland resulted in Denmark summoning the US charge d’affaires. In a damning symbol of the changed dynamic between Denmark and the US, traditionally its largest and most important ally, it was recently revealed that Copenhagen had established a “night watch” tasked with monitoring Trump’s unpredictable words and actions while Denmark sleeps.
Despite the report’s warnings, the head of the DDIS, Thomas Ahrenkiel, said that the US was still Denmark’s closest ally.
“The United States has been and continues to be the guarantor of Europe’s security through its involvement in the transatlantic alliance, its presence in Europe and through the American nuclear umbrella,” he told broadcaster DR.
“The United States is leveraging economic power, including threats of high tariffs, to assert its will, and the possibility of employing military force – even against allies – is no longer ruled out,” the report said.
It also warns of the “uncertainty” around the role of the US as a “guarantor of European security” which it said will increase Russia’s “willingness to intensify its hybrid attacks against Nato”. It adds: “The military threat from Russia to Nato will increase, even though there is currently no threat of a regular military attack against the kingdom of Denmark.”
