Denmark\u2019s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen warned on Sunday that Copenhagen is facing a \u201cdecisive moment\u201d in its diplomatic standoff over Greenland after US President Donald Trump once again suggested that Washington could use force to take control of the vast Arctic island.<\/strong><\/p>\nSpeaking ahead of a series of meetings in Washington starting Monday, Frederiksen said the dispute was no longer theoretical, but part of a broader global struggle over strategic influence and critical raw materials in the Arctic. \u201cThere is a conflict over Greenland,\u201d she said during a debate with other Danish political leaders, stressing that the stakes extended far beyond the future of the self-governing territory itself.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a decisive moment,\u201d Frederiksen added, framing the issue as a test of international norms at a time of intensifying geopolitical competition in the Far North.<\/p>\n
In a post on Facebook later on Sunday, the Danish leader underlined her government\u2019s position, saying Denmark was prepared to stand firm. \u201cWe are ready to defend our values \u2013 wherever it is necessary \u2013 also in the Arctic. We believe in international law and in peoples\u2019 right to self-determination,\u201d she wrote, in a clear rebuke to Trump\u2019s renewed rhetoric.<\/p>\n
Trump, who has repeatedly argued that Greenland is vital to US national security, has revived the idea of acquiring the mineral-rich island and has refused to rule out military action. The White House said earlier this week that the president still wants to buy Greenland, alarming European allies and prompting urgent coordination across the continent.<\/p>\n
Germany and Sweden were among the first to publicly back Denmark following Trump\u2019s latest remarks. Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson condemned what he described as \u201cthreatening rhetoric\u201d after Trump said the United States was \u201cgoing to do something on Greenland, whether they like it or not\u201d.<\/p>\n
Speaking at a major defence conference in S\u00e4len, attended by NATO\u2019s top US general, Kristersson said Nordic and European unity was essential. \u201cSweden, the Nordic countries, the Baltic states, and several major European countries stand together with our Danish friends,\u201d he told delegates.<\/p>\n
Kristersson warned that a US takeover of Greenland would represent a serious breach of international norms. \u201cIt would be a violation of international law and risks encouraging other countries to act in exactly the same way,\u201d he said, suggesting that such a precedent could destabilise global order far beyond the Arctic.<\/p>\n
Berlin also reiterated its support for Denmark and Greenland ahead of high-level talks in Washington. German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul was due to hold discussions in Iceland on Monday focused on what his ministry described as the \u201cstrategic challenges of the Far North\u201d, before travelling on to meet US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe legitimate interests of all NATO Allies, as well as those of the inhabitants of the Arctic region, must be at the centre of our discussions,\u201d Wadephul said in a statement. He has previously made clear that sovereignty over Greenland is not open to outside negotiation, telling Germany\u2019s Bild daily that \u201cit is exclusively up to Greenland and Denmark to decide questions of Greenland\u2019s territory and sovereignty\u201d.<\/p>\n
German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil echoed that message, saying that Arctic security should be strengthened cooperatively within NATO. \u201cWe are strengthening security in the Arctic together, as NATO allies, and not against one another,\u201d he said ahead of an international meeting on critical raw materials in Washington.<\/p>\n
European concern has been mounting since Trump\u2019s comments, with leaders scrambling to present a united front. On Tuesday, the leaders of seven European countries, including France, Britain, Germany and Italy, signed a joint letter emphasising that it is \u201conly\u201d for Denmark and Greenland to decide the territory\u2019s future.<\/p>\n
Trump has justified his stance by pointing to growing Russian and Chinese military activity in the Arctic, arguing that US control of Greenland is essential to counter those threats. The island sits astride key sea lanes and hosts important US military installations, including the Pituffik Space Base, formerly known as Thule Air Base.<\/p>\n
NATO Supreme Allied Commander General Alexus Grynkewich, speaking at the Swedish conference, confirmed that alliance members are actively discussing Greenland\u2019s status. While he declined to address what he called \u201cthe political dimensions of recent rhetoric\u201d, he said talks were ongoing within NATO\u2019s main decision-making body.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose dialogues continue in Brussels. They have been healthy dialogues from what I\u2019ve heard,\u201d Grynkewich said. He added that there was \u201cno immediate threat\u201d to NATO territory, but stressed that the Arctic\u2019s strategic importance was increasing rapidly.<\/p>\n
The general noted that Russian and Chinese naval vessels have been observed operating together along Russia\u2019s northern coast and near Alaska and Canada, a sign of closer cooperation as melting ice opens up new routes and access to resources. \u201cThey are working together to gain greater access to the Arctic,\u201d he said, pointing to climate change as a key factor reshaping the region\u2019s security landscape.<\/p>\n
Greenland, a former Danish colony until 1953, was granted home rule in 1979 and later expanded self-government. While the island controls most domestic affairs, Denmark retains responsibility for defence and foreign policy. Greenlandic leaders have long discussed the possibility of eventual independence, but polls consistently show strong opposition among the population to any form of US takeover.<\/p>\n
As Frederiksen prepares for talks in Washington, the dispute has become a defining test for Denmark\u2019s diplomacy and for European unity more broadly, with Greenland emerging as a focal point in the widening contest for power and resources in the Arctic.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Denmark\u2019s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen warned on Sunday that Copenhagen is facing a \u201cdecisive moment\u201d in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":81459,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[8635,3764,8428,844,212,1601,8628,2854,8634,8370,1092,1285],"class_list":["post-81458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia","tag-copenhagen","tag-decisive","tag-denmark","tag-europe","tag-faces","tag-force","tag-greenland","tag-moment","tag-rallies","tag-revives","tag-threat","tag-trump"],"yoast_head":"\n
Denmark Faces \u2018Decisive Moment\u2019 Over Greenland as Trump Revives Threat of Force and Europe Rallies Behind Copenhagen - Gulf Times | News by the minute<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Gulf Times: Latest news across the GCC from UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/theasialive.com\/denmark-faces-decisive-moment-over-greenland-as-trump-revives-threat-of-force-and-europe-rallies-behind-copenhagen\/2026\/01\/12\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Denmark Faces \u2018Decisive Moment\u2019 Over Greenland as Trump Revives Threat of Force and Europe Rallies Behind Copenhagen\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Gulf News| UAE's Largest News aggregator site\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/theasialive.com\/denmark-faces-decisive-moment-over-greenland-as-trump-revives-threat-of-force-and-europe-rallies-behind-copenhagen\/2026\/01\/12\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Gulf Times | News by the minute\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/100084981843786\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-01-12T04:30:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Mette-Frederiksen-Prime-Minister-of-Denmark.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"790\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"474\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"gulftimes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Gulftimesuae\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Gulftimesuae\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"gulftimes\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Denmark Faces \u2018Decisive Moment\u2019 Over Greenland as Trump Revives Threat of Force and Europe Rallies Behind Copenhagen - Gulf Times | News by the minute","description":"Gulf Times: Latest news across the GCC from UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/theasialive.com\/denmark-faces-decisive-moment-over-greenland-as-trump-revives-threat-of-force-and-europe-rallies-behind-copenhagen\/2026\/01\/12\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Denmark Faces \u2018Decisive Moment\u2019 Over Greenland as Trump Revives Threat of Force and Europe Rallies Behind Copenhagen","og_description":"Gulf News| UAE's Largest News aggregator site","og_url":"https:\/\/theasialive.com\/denmark-faces-decisive-moment-over-greenland-as-trump-revives-threat-of-force-and-europe-rallies-behind-copenhagen\/2026\/01\/12\/","og_site_name":"Gulf Times | News by the minute","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/100084981843786","article_published_time":"2026-01-12T04:30:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":790,"height":474,"url":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Mette-Frederiksen-Prime-Minister-of-Denmark.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"gulftimes","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Gulftimesuae","twitter_site":"@Gulftimesuae","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"gulftimes","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/theasialive.com\/denmark-faces-decisive-moment-over-greenland-as-trump-revives-threat-of-force-and-europe-rallies-behind-copenhagen\/2026\/01\/12\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=81458"},"author":{"name":"gulftimes","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#\/schema\/person\/4c5b0f90aae48bb43165ee6e39ddc977"},"headline":"Denmark Faces \u2018Decisive Moment\u2019 Over Greenland as Trump Revives Threat of Force and Europe Rallies Behind Copenhagen","datePublished":"2026-01-12T04:30:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=81458"},"wordCount":938,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/theasialive.com\/denmark-faces-decisive-moment-over-greenland-as-trump-revives-threat-of-force-and-europe-rallies-behind-copenhagen\/2026\/01\/12\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Mette-Frederiksen-Prime-Minister-of-Denmark.jpg","keywords":["Copenhagen","Decisive","Denmark","Europe","Faces","force","Greenland","Moment","Rallies","Revives","threat","Trump"],"articleSection":["Asia"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/theasialive.com\/denmark-faces-decisive-moment-over-greenland-as-trump-revives-threat-of-force-and-europe-rallies-behind-copenhagen\/2026\/01\/12\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=81458","url":"https:\/\/theasialive.com\/denmark-faces-decisive-moment-over-greenland-as-trump-revives-threat-of-force-and-europe-rallies-behind-copenhagen\/2026\/01\/12\/","name":"Denmark Faces \u2018Decisive Moment\u2019 Over Greenland as Trump Revives Threat of Force and Europe Rallies Behind Copenhagen - Gulf Times | News by the minute","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/theasialive.com\/denmark-faces-decisive-moment-over-greenland-as-trump-revives-threat-of-force-and-europe-rallies-behind-copenhagen\/2026\/01\/12\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/theasialive.com\/denmark-faces-decisive-moment-over-greenland-as-trump-revives-threat-of-force-and-europe-rallies-behind-copenhagen\/2026\/01\/12\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Mette-Frederiksen-Prime-Minister-of-Denmark.jpg","datePublished":"2026-01-12T04:30:00+00:00","description":"Gulf Times: Latest news across the GCC from UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/theasialive.com\/denmark-faces-decisive-moment-over-greenland-as-trump-revives-threat-of-force-and-europe-rallies-behind-copenhagen\/2026\/01\/12\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/theasialive.com\/denmark-faces-decisive-moment-over-greenland-as-trump-revives-threat-of-force-and-europe-rallies-behind-copenhagen\/2026\/01\/12\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/theasialive.com\/denmark-faces-decisive-moment-over-greenland-as-trump-revives-threat-of-force-and-europe-rallies-behind-copenhagen\/2026\/01\/12\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Mette-Frederiksen-Prime-Minister-of-Denmark.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Mette-Frederiksen-Prime-Minister-of-Denmark.jpg","width":790,"height":474},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/theasialive.com\/denmark-faces-decisive-moment-over-greenland-as-trump-revives-threat-of-force-and-europe-rallies-behind-copenhagen\/2026\/01\/12\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Denmark Faces \u2018Decisive Moment\u2019 Over Greenland as Trump Revives Threat of Force and Europe Rallies Behind Copenhagen"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#website","url":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/","name":"Gulf Times | News by the minute","description":"Largest News Aggregator in the Gulf","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#organization"},"alternateName":"Gulf News Aggregator","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#organization","name":"Gulf Times","url":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"","contentUrl":"","caption":"Gulf Times"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/100084981843786","https:\/\/x.com\/Gulftimesuae"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#\/schema\/person\/4c5b0f90aae48bb43165ee6e39ddc977","name":"gulftimes","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a8f9c2e07a9cd7e7e7c302c8c7ce8d5e0865a0bbcc732793d6e761588fd10b03?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a8f9c2e07a9cd7e7e7c302c8c7ce8d5e0865a0bbcc732793d6e761588fd10b03?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a8f9c2e07a9cd7e7e7c302c8c7ce8d5e0865a0bbcc732793d6e761588fd10b03?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"gulftimes"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/gulftimes.ae"],"url":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=81458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/81459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=81458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=81458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=81458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}