The Danish government has issued its most explicit defence guarantee for Greenland after President Donald Trump restated that the island should be placed under American control. Speaking at a NATO summit in Ankara, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Copenhagen was prepared to defend “every centimetre” of the kingdom and that the territory was not for sale. The declaration came hours after Trump told reporters that the United States should control Greenland, citing the presence of Chinese and Russian vessels in surrounding waters and questioning Denmark’s willingness to invest in the island’s security.

Denmark’s position, as articulated by Frederiksen, rests on the right of Greenland’s population to self-determination and the inviolability of sovereign borders. She invoked Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which commits allies to mutual defence, as the ultimate assurance for member states. Iceland’s prime minister, Kristrún Frostadóttir, offered immediate backing, stating that Greenland belongs to its people and that they have clearly rejected becoming part of the United States. European capitals including London, Helsinki, Oslo, Berlin and Paris also expressed support for Danish territorial integrity, according to officials briefed on the discussions.

In Washington’s view, the strategic calculus of the High North has shifted. Trump administration officials argue that increased Russian and Chinese military and commercial activity in the Arctic makes Greenland indispensable to US national security. The president linked the issue to the broader burden-sharing debate, warning that he could withdraw American forces from Europe if allies did not acquiesce. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte acknowledged that Trump was correct to highlight the challenge posed by Beijing and Moscow in the Arctic, but stressed that the alliance must remain united and that a “good process” was already under way within the framework of the 1951 US-Denmark defence agreement on Greenland.

Greenlandic authorities have signalled that the island should belong neither to Denmark nor to the United States, while remaining open to security cooperation with Washington. The current standoff revives a dispute that first surfaced during Trump’s initial term, when his offer to purchase Greenland was dismissed as absurd by Frederiksen, leading to a cancelled state visit. The dossier now returns to a diplomatic track whose contours remain undefined. No formal negotiations on sovereignty have been announced, and the NATO summit concluded without a joint statement on the matter, leaving the alliance’s internal tensions unresolved.