Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has said that her country will not rule out a military response in Greenland amid threats from U.S. President Trump to annex the Arctic island.
Speaking on what the Danish press has dubbed the “battle for Greenland”, Prime Minsiter Frederiksen appeared to make her most forceful comments to date.
“It is true that the US president has unfortunately not ruled out the use of military force. Therefore, the rest of us cannot rule it out either. It is a natural consequence of what the US president has said – and has not said,” she said, according to the Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR).
The Ministry of State attempted to clarify Frederiksen’s statement, telling DR that her comments should be viewed as Copenhagen taking the American threat of force seriously as a scenario.
It comes as Denmark has “substantially” increased its military presence on Greenland, reportedly deploying around 100 soldiers to the 836,000-square-mile island.
Troops from fellow European nations, including France, Germany, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom, have also recently been cycled in through the territory. However, the dozens of troops were merely deployed for previously scheduled military exercises, according to PM Frederiksen.
Eight European countries, including Denmark, face potential tariffs from the United States, President Donald Trump threatened over the weekend, citing what appeared to be a show of force against Washington.
It is not the first time the Kingdom of Denmark has sabre-rattled and signalled its willingness to use force to defend its largely self-governing colonial territory.
Earlier this month, the Ministry of Defence confirmed to the Berlingske newspaper that a 1952 Danish royal decree (Forholdsordren) requiring the military to counter any attack, whether within Danish territory or not.
This would mean that the Danish Armed Forces soldiers stationed in Greenland would be obliged to fight back, should the much larger United States military attempt to seize the island by force. The 1952 order states that troops must “take up the fight without hesitation, without waiting for or seeking orders”.
Although Denmark has been one of the countries most willing to up their defence spending in response to demands from President Trump, Copenhagen only spent around $10 billion last year, according to NATO figures. In contrast, the United States defence budget stood at $980 billion.
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