military operation in Venezuela<\/a>, the US president said on Sunday the US needed Greenland \u201cvery badly\u201d, renewing fears of a US invasion of the largely autonomous island.<\/p>\nIn their statement on Tuesday, the European leaders said: \u201cGreenland belongs to its people. It is for Denmark and Greenland, and them only, to decide on matters concerning Denmark and Greenland.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Denmark,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/8640.jpg\")
Denmark, Greenland push back on Trump remarks, say Greenland not for conquest – video<\/p>\n
The leaders said security in the Arctic must be achieved collectively with Nato allies, including the US.<\/p>\n
\u201cNato has made clear that the Arctic region is a priority and European allies are stepping up,\u201d the statement said. \u201cWe and many other allies have increased our presence, activities, and investments, to keep the Arctic safe and to deter adversaries.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Danish foreign policy committee has called an extraordinary meeting of the country\u2019s parliament for Tuesday night to discuss the Danish kingdom\u2019s relationship with the US. It will be attended by the foreign minister, Lars L\u00f8kke Rasmussen, and the defence minister, Troels Lund Poulsen.<\/p>\n
Naaja H Nathanielsen, the Greenlandic minister for business, mineral resources, energy, justice and gender equality, said discussions about a potential US invasion of Greenland were \u201cdisturbing\u201d and \u201cvery challenging\u201d for Greenlanders.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe people of Greenland takes this potential threat very hard and are anxious and afraid,\u201d she told the Guardian.<\/p>\n
She urged global leaders to \u201cstand by the rights, laws and conventions that the western alliance has promoted for decades\u201d.<\/p>\n
Nathanielsen said that Greenland long been a \u201cgood American ally\u201d but this \u201cdoes not transfer into an acceptance of – or interest in becoming Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n
She added: \u201cWe are very few, but we are a people in our own right and insist that we are the ones to decide the future of Greenland. We will continuously promote the idea of alliances and partnerships over colonialism. We have had our share of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Martin Lidegaard, leader of Denmark\u2019s Social Liberal party and former Danish foreign minister, said it was a \u201cvery serious situation\u201d and a \u201chistorical situation\u201d where one Nato ally is threatening another Nato ally. \u201cThis is not comparable with any other event or country in the world,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The Miller interview was conducted after his wife, the rightwing podcaster Katie Miller, posted a map on X of Greenland draped in a US flag with the caption \u201cSOON\u201d.<\/p>\n
Asked about the post, Miller laughed and said: \u201cIt has been the formal position of the US government since the beginning of this administration, frankly going back into the previous Trump administration, that Greenland should be part of the US. The president has been very clear about that.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Monday Frederiksen said an attack by the US on a Nato ally would mean the end of the military alliance and \u201cpost-second world war security\u201d. It would, she said, be the end of \u201ceverything\u201d.<\/p>\n
Greenland\u2019s prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, also made a strong statement in which he urged Trump to give up his \u201cfantasies about annexation\u201d and accused the US of \u201ccompletely and utterly unacceptable\u201d rhetoric. \u201cEnough is enough,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Jens-Frederik Nielsen, the prime minister of Greenland. Photograph: Oscar Scott Carl\/Reuters<\/p>\n
Inuit people are understood to have lived in Greenland since as early as 2500 BCE. Modern colonisation began in 1721, when Hans Egede arrived acting with the support of what was then Denmark-Norway. It remained a colony until 1953, when it became part of the kingdom of Denmark. During the second world war, when Denmark was occupied by Germany, Greenland was occupied by the US and returned to Denmark in 1945. The US has had a military base in Greenland, which is important for its ballistic missile early warning system, at Pituffik (previously Thule) since the cold war.<\/p>\n
In recent years there has been growing support for Greenlandic independence, particularly after revelations about Denmark\u2019s treatment of Greenlandic people \u2013 including the IUD scandal<\/a> \u2013 during and since colonial rule.<\/p>\nBut amid the spectre of Trump\u2019s threat, Greenland in March formed a new four-party coalition government in a show of national unity, with the first page of the coalition agreement stating: \u201cGreenland belongs to us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of Donald Trump\u2019s top aides has ramped up the pressure on Denmark by questioning Copenhagen\u2019s claim to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355667,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-355666","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}