COPENHAGEN, Denmark – Some Danes instructed CBS Information on the streets of Copenhagen they’re more and more nervous about their nation’s safety due to what they see because the rising menace from close by Russia and considerations over the reliability of the Trump White Home as an ally.
Kenneth Howery, the brand new U.S ambassador to Denmark, is in Greenland’s capital Nuuk this week for his first journey to the Danish-controlled, however self-governed, nation. He stated in a social media submit on X that he and officers from Greenland and Denmark “renewed our dedication to a robust and mutually useful relationship” whereas assembly on Monday.
Their assembly got here after U.S. and Danish diplomatic ties had been strained by President Trump reviving his long-standing curiosity in buying Greenland, which the White Home has argued is important to guard U.S. nationwide safety. Mr. Trump hasn’t dominated out taking Greenland by army drive though Denmark is a member of the U.S.-led NATO alliance.
Hanne Mortenson, a Danish resident of the nation’s capital, instructed CBS Information late final week that she has at all times seemed to america as “the best of democracy,” however believes the nation is turning into “increasingly autocratic.” She stated that’s troubling on account of Russia’s repeated, latest incursions into European airspace.
“I noticed this large map yesterday on TV with how a lot the Russians are coming nearer and that worries me,” Mortensen stated, though she added that she would not need the U.S. to take over Greenland regardless of safety considerations associated to Russia.
Denmark is constantly ranked as one of many world’s happiest nations, in accordance with the World Happiness Index. However in latest weeks, European nations have reported unidentified drones flying round key infrastructure, together with in Denmark, following Russian drone and fighter jet incursions into Poland, Romania and Estonia. Among the United States’ European NATO allies have alleged airspace incursions are a part of a marketing campaign of escalating hybrid warfare ways by Russia.
In September, Copenhagen Airport was compelled to droop flights on account of unidentified drone sightings. Russia, nonetheless, denied involvement in drone incursions, with its embassy in Denmark saying in an announcement on the time that “incidents involving reported disruptions at Danish airports are a staged provocation. Undoubtedly, they are going to be used as a pretext for additional escalating rigidity within the pursuits of forces searching for by all means to extend the Ukrainian battle and prolong it to different nations.”
Nonetheless, one 70-year-old Danish lady instructed CBS Information that the Danish sense of safety and contentment is waning.
“The Russians should undergo Denmark to come back to Europe,” she instructed CBS Information. “I believe individuals my age are extra nervous as a result of we bear in mind – we’re after World Warfare II youngsters – so, we bear in mind these days, and we now have heard about it our complete childhood, concerning the conflict and the difficulties and all of the horror that goes with conflict.”
Copenhagen resident Thomas Geuken, stated he was just lately speaking to his 90-year-old father-in-law, “and I requested him this morning, ‘Is the glass half empty or half full?’ And he really stated, ‘Effectively, it is half empty due to the conflict in Ukraine and Russia. So it performs a giant half in our considering.'”
