COPENHAGEN — Denmark’s foreign minister has summoned the United States’ top diplomat in the capital Copenhagen over Danish intelligence reports that US citizens have been conducting covert influence operations in Greenland, the foreign ministry said on Wednesday.

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Public broadcaster DR cited unnamed sources as saying the government believed at least three Americans with ties to President Donald Trump’s administration had been involved in influence operations aimed at promoting Greenland’s secession from Denmark to the US.

Denmark summons US envoy over 'attempts to influence' Greenland

“We are aware that foreign actors continue to show an interest in Greenland and its position in the Kingdom of Denmark,” Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said in a statement.

“It is, therefore, not surprising if we experience outside attempts to influence the future of the Kingdom in the time ahead,” he added.

Neither the broadcaster nor the ministry named the individuals flagged in the intelligence reports.

The US Embassy in Copenhagen did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump has said he wants the US to take over Greenland, a semi-autonomous Danish territory rich in minerals and strategically located in the Arctic, for reasons of national and international security. He has not ruled out the use of force to do so.

His proposal has been firmly rejected in both Copenhagen and Greenland’s capital Nuuk. While Trump has since expressed respect for Greenland’s right to determine its own future, his comments about potentially taking the territory by force have fueled uncertainty among its 57,000 inhabitants.

At the same time, Denmark has sought to bolster its relations with Greenland, a former colony but now a self-governing territory within the Nordic nation, rallying European allies to counterbalance US ambitions in the region.

In a show of solidarity, French President Emmanuel Macron visited Greenland in June and was greeted by hundreds of locals. That contrasted with the reception received by US Vice President JD Vance in March, when protests forced him to visit a remote American air base and scrap plans for his wife Usha to attend a dog sled race.

The PET, Denmark’s national security and intelligence service, said in a statement it considered “that Greenland, especially in the current situation, is a target for influence campaigns of various kinds.”

“This could be done by exploiting existing or invented disagreements, for example, in connection with known single issues or by promoting or reinforcing certain views in Greenland regarding the Kingdom of Denmark and the United States or other countries with a special interest in Greenland,” it added.

Trump has picked PayPal co-founder Ken Howery as the new US ambassador to Denmark, but the US mission in Copenhagen is currently led by chargé d’affaires Mark Stroh, it said on its website.