Denmark expects NATO to defend Greenland from ‘erstwhile friend’ US

NATO would help Denmark protect Greenland from any attack, including hypothetically from the US, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has said.

The issue of Greenland came up on the sidelines of a NATO leaders’ summit in Ankara, Türkiye, after US President Donald Trump confirmed that he still wants Washington to control the Danish autonomous territory. He said the dispute was one of the reasons his relationship with the bloc had deteriorated.

“That should be controlled by the United States, not by Denmark,” Trump told reporters during a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday.

“Greenland does not help Denmark. Denmark does not really spend money to help Greenland,” he said. He also warned that the US could potentially withdraw all American troops from Europe.

Frederiksen responded ahead of a leaders’ meeting on Wednesday, when asked about a possible military conflict over Greenland with “an erstwhile friend.” She said “we are ready to defend any inch of NATO, including our own territory,” and described Article 5 protections as an insurance policy. Denmark would not be able to defend itself without NATO, she said, adding that “the same goes for the US.”

The idea of the US acquiring Greenland has arisen at various times in American history. Strategically located in the North Atlantic, the Danish island already hosts a US military base and is believed to contain valuable mineral resources, the extraction of which could become commercially viable in the future.

Trump has refused to rule out the use of military force to establish control over Greenland, raising the possibility of NATO being pitted against its dominant member. The American leader has accused the organization of being useless to US interests, with its refusal to become directly involved in the US-Israeli attack on Iran emerging as a major grievance.

Meanwhile, European NATO members rely on American weapons and intelligence to sustain Kiev’s war effort against Moscow. Western donors have argued that the conflict must continue while they conduct a military build-up for a potential direct war with Russia.