Denmark’s prime minister warned on Monday that an American attack on Greenland, a Danish territory, would cause the end of NATO, responding to President Trump’s repeated threats in recent days to take it over.
Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen of Denmark made the comments, some of her strongest on the subject, in interviews with Danish broadcasters after Mr. Trump reiterated his claims that annexing Greenland was necessary for American national security. Mr. Trump has appeared emboldened since the U.S. raid on Venezuela that captured Nicolás Maduro, the country’s former authoritarian leader.
Ms. Frederiksen said that the threats were “unacceptable pressure” but that they must be taken seriously. “I believe that he means it,” she said in an interview with DR, the Danish broadcaster.
“If the United States were to choose to attack another NATO country, then everything would come to an end,” she said. “The international community as we know it, democratic rules of the game, NATO, the world’s strongest defensive alliance — all of that would collapse if one NATO country chose to attack another.”
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is a mutual-defense alliance established in 1949, after World War II, by the United States, Canada and 10 European countries. The treaty for which the alliance is named has 14 articles by which all NATO members must abide. The most prominent is Article 5, which declares that an attack against one member state is an attack against them all.
On Tuesday, Ms. Frederiksen released a joint statement with the leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Poland and Britain, emphasizing what they said was the importance of NATO collaboration in Arctic security. Greenland, a semiautonomous island, lies between the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans.
“Greenland belongs to its people,” the leaders said in the statement. “It is for Denmark and Greenland, and them only, to decide on matters concerning Denmark and Greenland.”
The leaders called the United States “an essential partner” in protecting the Arctic region and upholding the principles of the United Nations Charter, “including sovereignty, territorial integrity and the inviolability of borders.”
Since the U.S. military raid on Venezuela, Mr. Trump has doubled down on his claims about the Danish territory. “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security,” he told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday, adding that he thought Denmark was not doing enough to safeguard the vast, mineral-rich territory.
Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen of Greenland rejected Mr. Trump’s comments, writing on social media that his rhetoric was “utterly unacceptable” and that connecting the situation in Greenland to Venezuela in that regard was “wrong” and “disrespectful.”
In her statement on Sunday, Ms. Frederiksen noted that Denmark’s NATO membership and a defense agreement with the United States already gave Washington “wide access to Greenland.” She added that Denmark was working to increase its defense capabilities in the Arctic. An American military base, which specializes in missile defense, is on the island.
The statements followed a separate American provocation: a post on social media from Katie Miller, the wife of Stephen Miller, one of Mr. Trump’s top advisers.
“SOON,” she wrote, with a map of Greenland shaded in by the American flag.
Last month, Mr. Trump outraged Danish officials by appointing a special envoy to the island. It was believed to be the first time that the United States had done so, and it was seen as part of his efforts to acquire the territory. Also last month, Denmark’s military intelligence warned about the United States for the first time in its annual threat assessment, saying that shifts in American policy were generating new uncertainties for Danish security.
The Danish government has also expressed anger over reports that the United States was spying on Greenland and running a covert influence campaign there.
Though few Danes expect an imminent invasion, the threats are alarming to Denmark, said Mikkel Runge Olesen, a senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies.
“It has gained a lot of traction in Denmark and it has generated a lot of worry,” he said.
The raid in Venezuela “shows the U.S. willingness to use force,” Dr. Olesen added, but he cautioned that comparing the two situations was “a bit of a leap.”
American-Venezuelan relations have been “horrible for decades,” he said. “It’s a completely different ballgame to go and invade a NATO ally.”
Jeanna Smialek contributed reporting from Brussels.
Amelia Nierenberg is a Times reporter covering international news from London.
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