At least three people with connections to Donald Trump are, according to sources for Danish 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 to 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 if we see foreign attempts to influence the kingdom's future in the near future, he continues.
It is not yet known whether the three men that Danish Radio report on have acted on orders from US authorities or worked on their own.
Historical violations
The information suggests that the Danish Security and Intelligence Service, PET, now sees specific American influence campaigns intended to create divisions between Denmark and the self-governing Greenland.
What we see is the use of soft power, influence and attempts to create internal divisions, says a source to DR.
One of the men in DR's reporting, who is often seen together with President Donald Trump, is said to have collected stories about forced relocations of Greenlandic children and about Danish doctors who as late as the 1990s inserted coils in Greenlandic women without their consent and knowledge, in the so-called coil campaign.
Since Denmark colonized Greenland in the early 18th century, the Danish state has committed abuses against the indigenous people, and Denmark has apologized to Greenland for parts of the injustices.
Diplomatic statement
On Wednesday, the Danish Foreign Ministry summoned the US chargé d'affaires for an explanation.
Any attempts to interfere in the kingdom's internal affairs will of course be unacceptable, says Denmark's Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, to Ritzau.
Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has gone out during the day and apologized to Greenland for the abuses in connection with the coil campaign. It is unclear whether Frederiksen planned the apology in advance or if the Prime Minister chose to go out with it in connection with Danish Radio's revelation.
Danish 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 persons 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.
