COPENHAGEN, Denmark – Some Danes advised CBS Information on the streets of Copenhagen they’re more and more frightened about their nation’s safety due to what they see because the rising risk 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 put up on X that he and officers from Greenland and Denmark “renewed our dedication to a powerful and mutually useful relationship” whereas assembly on Monday.
Their assembly got here after U.S. and Danish diplomatic ties have been strained by President Trump reviving his long-standing curiosity in buying Greenland, which the White Home has argued is critical to guard U.S. nationwide safety. Mr. Trump hasn’t dominated out taking Greenland by army drive although Denmark is a member of the U.S.-led NATO alliance.
Hanne Mortenson, a Danish resident of the nation’s capital, advised CBS Information late final week that she has at all times seemed to the US as “the perfect of democracy,” however believes the nation is changing into “an increasing number of autocratic.” She stated that’s troubling attributable to Russia’s repeated, latest incursions into European airspace.
“I noticed this huge 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 persistently ranked as one of many world’s happiest international locations, based on the International 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. A number of the United States’ European NATO allies have alleged airspace incursions are a part of a marketing campaign of escalating hybrid warfare techniques by Russia.
In September, Copenhagen Airport was pressured to droop flights attributable to 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 stress within the pursuits of forces searching for by all means to delay the Ukrainian battle and lengthen it to different international locations.”
Nonetheless, one 70-year-old Danish lady advised CBS Information that the Danish sense of safety and contentment is waning.
“The Russians need to undergo Denmark to return to Europe,” she advised CBS Information. “I believe individuals my age are extra frightened as a result of we bear in mind – we’re after World Battle II youngsters – so, we bear in mind these days, and we now have heard about it our total childhood, in regards to 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 truly stated, ‘Effectively, it is half empty due to the conflict in Ukraine and Russia. So it performs an enormous half in our considering.'”
