{"id":261221,"date":"2026-01-24T07:38:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T07:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/261221\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T07:38:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T07:38:11","slug":"anxiety-shifts-to-irritation-in-denmark-as-details-of-us-deal-on-greenland-trickle-out-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/261221\/","title":{"rendered":"Anxiety shifts to irritation in Denmark as details of US \u2018deal\u2019 on Greenland trickle out \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Deal or no deal? That was the question waiting for Danish<\/a> prime minister Mette Frederiksen<\/a> on Friday in Greenland<\/a>. <\/p>\n

On a snap visit to show \u201cstrong Danish support\u201d for the island, an autonomous territory of the kingdom of Denmark for three centuries, Frederiksen had barely landed when a journalist wanted to know \u201cif the crisis is over?\u201d<\/p>\n

Frederiksen had no answer. Instead she walked away from the cameras with Greenland\u2019s prime minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen.<\/p>\n

It was a telling, wordless moment in what Frederiksen, with a dash of understatement, called a \u201cserious situation\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone can see that,\u201d she replied to an earlier question. \u201cNow there is a diplomatic, political track that we are going to pursue, and that is what we need.\u201d<\/p>\n

That she cancelled a planned meeting of fellow Nordic leaders to fly to Nuuk, the Greenlandic capital, was signal enough that, for Denmark and Greenland, the stand-off with Washington continues. Regardless of any \u201call-access deal\u201d announced by US<\/a> president Donald Trump<\/a> in Davos<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"USUS president Donald Trump addresses the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday. Photograph: Doug Mills\/The New York Times<\/p>\n

Hours after the Trump announcement, Danish foreign minister Lars L\u00f8kke Rasmussen was back in Washington for talks, saying only afterwards: \u201cWe want to take the drama out of this.\u201d<\/p>\n

That Denmark is still planning for drama on the island is clear, however, from a short, blunt military order issued last week. <\/p>\n

If Greenland is attacked, according to the order seen by public broadcaster DR, Danish troops are to respond \u2013 including with live ammunition. <\/p>\n

Among those likely to respond: newly-arrived black beret members of the armed Jutland Dragoon Regiment.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018Time to step up\u2019: von der Leyen pushes Arctic defence at EU summitOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

They would lead an armed, multi-phased Danish response to any takeover attempt and, according to the order, \u201cdemonstrate the will and ability to defend the sovereignty and territorial integrity\u201d of the kingdom of Denmark.<\/p>\n

What made the order noteworthy was less its content \u2013 building on a standing 1952 Royal Order that remains active \u2013 than its timing. <\/p>\n

Days earlier Trump vowed to take Greenland \u201cthe easy or the hard way\u201d.<\/p>\n

To the New York Times, Trump said US ownership of Greenland was \u201cwhat I feel is psychologically needed for success\u201d.<\/p>\n

After the Davos deal, US journalists asked if his self-professed deal met his own conditions for success. Trump\u2019s answer was evasive: \u201cIt\u2019s a long-term deal … that\u2019s forever\u201d. Pressed on the detail, Trump demurred: \u201cMuch different, much more detail.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Trust is broken. Europe-US relations have never been lowerOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Ask Danish analysts about any deal and the smart money is on an overhaul of an existing bilateral deal, signed in 1951, granting US wide-ranging rights on the island to establish and operate military facilities.<\/p>\n

That meant 17 bases at the height of the Cold War, though just one is operational now in Greenland\u2019s northwest.<\/p>\n

In addition the document allows the US government \u201cthe right to exercise exclusive jurisdiction over those defence areas in Greenland for which it is responsible\u201d.<\/p>\n

Crucially, however, the 1951 agreement exists \u201cwithout prejudice to the sovereignty of the Kingdom of Denmark over such [a] defence area\u201d.<\/p>\n

Any new arrangement may allow for a greater Nato<\/a> \u201cArctic Sentry\u201d presence and, reflecting US security concerns, could contain new provisions to block China and Russia from the island and its mineral deposits.<\/p>\n

In addition, US officials are reportedly pushing for \u201csovereign base areas\u201d, similar to RAF bases in Cyprus that are considered British territory.<\/p>\n

Denmark insists it will not compromise on its sole sovereign claim on the island and, in unison, politicians in Copenhagen or Nuuk insist this will not change \u2013 even after a key meeting in Davos between Trump and Nato secretary general Mark Rutte.<\/p>\n

\"TrumpTrump listens as Nato secretary general Mark Rutte speaks during a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum on Wednesday. Photograph: Chip Somodevilla\/Getty <\/p>\n

Danish defence minister Troels Lund Poulsen, also in Davos, described his own meeting with the Nato head in diplomatic terms as \u201cvery useful for Rutte … about the red lines of the kingdom\u201d.<\/p>\n

More outspoken was Greenland MP Aaja Chemnitz, who sits for the island in Denmark\u2019s parliament: \u201cIn no way has Nato its own mandate to negotiate anything about us from outside. Nothing about us, without us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Strong cross-party support in Denmark exists for this stance, and for the fresh military order. It builds on a pre-existing 1952 royal decree that, put simply, any attack on Danish territory is to be considered a mobilisation order to respond.<\/p>\n

Denmark knows it has no chance against the full force of the US military, but is determined to put up a fight if necessary. And while Trump derided Greenland\u2019s defences as \u201ctwo dog sleds\u201d, the Danish military begs to differ. It has been investing in maritime patrol aircraft capacity, additional icebreaker ships and even radar with additional drone capacity.<\/p>\n

On the water it has Thetis-class frigates; in the air, Seahawk helicopters. And, yes, there is the \u201cSirius Dog-Sled Patrol\u201d \u2013 though with an additional \u20ac37 million funding to ensure \u201cgreater flexibility and speed\u201d of deployment. <\/p>\n

And Denmark insists it is continuing with its Arctic Endurance exercise throughout 2026 \u201con land, at sea and in the air\u201d.<\/p>\n

As the standoff with Washington drags into another week, initial anxiety in Denmark is shifting to irritation. The Berlingske daily attacked Trump\u2019s Davos claims as an \u201caccumulating doom loop of bad decisions\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrump surrounds himself with flattery instead of truth,\u201d it added, \u201cand Greenland is the price of sycophancy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Deal or no deal? That was the question waiting for Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen on Friday in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":261222,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[120986,3025,969,3024,42,128180,43,3026,40,38,41,39,115],"class_list":{"0":"post-261221","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-davos","9":"tag-denmark","10":"tag-donald-trump","11":"tag-greenland","12":"tag-headlines","13":"tag-mette-frederiksen","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-north-atlantic-treaty-organisation-nato","16":"tag-top-news","17":"tag-top-stories","18":"tag-topnews","19":"tag-topstories","20":"tag-united-states"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}