Denmark summoned the head of the U.S. Embassy on Wednesday after allegations emerged that three Americans with close ties to President Trump were running “covert influence operations” in Greenland.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly said that he wants to “get” Greenland, a huge, strategically important island, mostly in the Arctic, that is a territory of Denmark.
Within hours of the allegations, published by Denmark’s main public broadcaster on Wednesday morning, the Danish Foreign Ministry summoned the current head of the embassy, the chargé d’affaires, for a meeting.
“We are aware that foreign actors continue to show an interest in Greenland,” said Lars Lokke Rasmussen, Denmark’s foreign minister, in a statement on Wednesday. “Any attempt to interfere in the internal affairs of the kingdom will of course be unacceptable.”
Mr. Rasmussen called the summons a “preventive conversation.”
The allegations followed reports this spring that American intelligence agencies were stepping up spying operations in Greenland, news that had also created a stir in Denmark.
According to the report by the public broadcaster, three unnamed Americans, including two who were said to have previously worked for President Trump, have traveled back and forth to Greenland gathering information and cultivating contacts as part of the “covert influence operations.”
The report relied on anonymous sources within the Danish government, but the summoning of the envoy on Wednesday suggested that Copenhagen was taking the allegations seriously.
There was no immediate response from the Trump administration.
Denmark has repeatedly rejected Mr. Trump’s insistence that the United States take over Greenland. Mr. Trump has been pushing the idea for years, first offering to buy the island from Denmark and then, when that did not work, threatening to get it, “one way or the other,” and refusing to rule out using military force.
Greenland is mostly ice, with a population of fewer than 60,000. Many still hunt seals for food and follow a lifestyle that is part traditional Inuit culture and part modern Scandinavian.
The island is loaded with resources including critical minerals, which have attracted the interest of top officials in the Trump administration. It also served as a base for American military operations during World War II and the Cold War, and there is still a small, remote American installation on the northern side of the island.
Most Greenlanders do not want to join the United States, according to recent polls, though many have voiced aspirations to break off from Denmark and become an independent country.
Jeffrey Gettleman is an international correspondent based in London covering global events. He has worked for The Times for more than 20 years.
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