Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said on Wednesday he would call in the acting US ambassador to Denmark for talks after The Wall Street Journal reported Washington had ordered US intelligence agencies to step up spying on Greenland.
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“I have read the article in The Wall Street Journal and it worries me greatly because we do not spy on friends,” Rasmussen told reporters during an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in Warsaw.
“We are going to call in the US acting ambassador for a discussion at the foreign ministry to see if we can confirm this information, which is somewhat disturbing,” Rasmussen added.
The minister said he hoped, “obviously, that this can be refuted” during the meeting with the US envoy, and “in any case the aim is to make clear Denmark’s position on this issue”.
The United States is stepping up its intelligence-gathering efforts regarding Greenland, drawing America’s spying apparatus into US President Donald Trump’s campaign to take over the island, the WSJ reported on Tuesday, citing two anonymous sources.
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‘This plan has historic origins’: Putin says Trump’s plan to annex Greenland is ‘serious’
‘This plan has historic origins’: Putin says Trump’s plan to annex Greenland is ‘serious’
Trump has repeatedly said he wants to take over Greenland, a semi-autonomous Danish territory in the Arctic, refusing to rule out annexation by force, creating a diplomatic crisis between the US, Denmark and Greenland.