At least three people with connections to Donald Trump are, according to sources for Danmarks Radio located in Greenland and are conducting influence operations there.
One of the men is said, according to the information, to have drawn up a list of names of people in Greenland who the American wants to recruit for a movement with the aim of breaking Greenland away from Denmark.
We can see that there are foreign actors showing interest in Greenland and its current position in the kingdom, says Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen according to the news agency Ritzau.
Therefore, it should not surprise us, he continues.
It is not yet known whether the three men that DR report on have acted on orders from authorities in the USA or worked on their own.
Historical violations
The information suggests that the Danish security police, PET, now see specific American influence campaigns intended to sow discord between Denmark and the self-governing Greenland.
What we see is the use of soft power, influence and attempts to create internal division, says a source to DR.
Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has spoken during the day with representatives from the American Senate.
We have said very clearly that this is unacceptable. And this is something that we will take very directly to our colleagues in the USA – who could quite easily deny that this is true if it were not the case, says Frederiksen to Danmarks Radio.
I note that the Americans do not clearly dismiss the information that Danmarks Radio has presented today. This is of course serious.
Summoned diplomat
In a further gesture on Wednesday, Denmark's Foreign Ministry has summoned the US chargé d'affaires for an explanation.
In May, The Wall Street Journal reported that US intelligence agencies had been instructed to gather information about Greenland, with a focus on, among other things, identifying people who support the US's ambitions to gain control over Greenland.
Donald Trump has since his return to the White House pushed hard for the US to need Greenland for security reasons and has not wanted to rule out taking the island by force.
Greenland and Denmark have rejected the advances.
Danmarks Radio's sources consist, among other things, of central government and authority sources as well as sources in Greenland and the USA, with whom DR has had several meetings since Donald Trump took office as president in January this year.
The sources themselves use words like "infiltration" and "influence operations", and assess that the purpose is to weaken Greenland's relations with Denmark and get the Greenlanders to submit to the USA.
At least three people with connections to Donald Trump are said to have conducted what the sources call "influence operations" in Greenland.
One of the people is said to have drawn up a list of people who could be used to found a movement to break Greenland away from Denmark.
DR's investigation has not established whether the American men acted on their own initiative or on behalf of American authorities.
