Denmark sees U.S. as potential security concern

Greenland became a flashpoint in U.S.-Danish relations earlier this year.

Denmark has labeled the U.S. as a potential security concern for the first time in an annual report released by one of its intelligence agencies, offering more evidence of the increasingly fraught transatlantic alliance between Europe and the U.S.

The report, compiled by the Danish Defense Intelligence Service (DDIS), warns that the U.S. “uses economic power, including threats of high tariffs, to enforce its will and no longer rules out the use of military force, even against allies.”

That assessment forms part of the service’s wider analysis that “great powers increasingly prioritize their own interests and use force to achieve their goals.”

CNN has reached out to the U.S. Embassy in Copenhagen and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in Washington for comment.

Apart from its warning relating to the U.S., the report largely focuses on strategic threats posed by Russia and China, as well as instability brought about by China’s rise and the resulting global shift in power.

It points out that the “military threat from Russia to NATO will increase,” a concern magnified for the Danes since “there is uncertainty about the role of the United States as a guarantor of Europe’s security.”

Denmark’s normally friendly relationship with its NATO ally grew strained earlier this year when U.S. President Donald Trump expressed an interest in taking control of Greenland, an autonomous, resource-rich, strategically significant Arctic island that is legally part of the Danish kingdom.

While Trump has not revisited that idea for months, it signaled his willingness to stress the U.S.’s relationship with its European partners following decades of close cooperation since the end of World War II.

That relationship is once again under scrutiny as the differing strategic priorities of the U.S. and Europe have been exposed in the recent Ukrainian peace talks and, most dramatically, in the national security strategy released Friday by the Trump administration, which adopted an unprecedented confrontational posture toward Europe.

And for Denmark, the threats posed by Russia and the U.S. are intertwined. The report argues that “Russia will try to exploit the U.S. desire for a quick end to the (Ukraine) war to sow division between the U.S. and Europe.”

By Antonia Mortensen, Issy Ronald, CNN