COPENHAGEN

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen on Friday expressed strong disapproval following a media report alleging that the Trump administration had directed US intelligence agencies to step up espionage efforts in Greenland.

“Of course you can't spy on an ally,” Frederiksen told reporters in Oslo, where she is attending the Joint Expeditionary Force meeting. She added: “We have already responded. These are rumors in an international newspaper. Our foreign minister has spoken with the United States.”

The report, published by a US news media outlet earlier this week, cites anonymous sources and claims that senior officials under the US director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, instructed agencies to gather more intelligence on Greenland’s independence movement and public attitudes toward potential US resource extraction.

While the allegations remain unverified, US authorities have not issued a denial.

In response, Denmark summoned the top US diplomat in Copenhagen on Thursday. Acting US Ambassador Jennifer Hall Godfrey met with Danish State Secretary Jeppe Tranholm-Mikkelsen at the Foreign Ministry. The US Embassy declined to comment.

Observers have linked the alleged intelligence directive to US President Donald Trump's interest in acquiring Greenland, a proposal he floated both before and shortly after taking office.

From the early days of his presidency, Trump made public remarks about buying, annexing, or otherwise gaining control of the autonomous Danish territory.

"We need Greenland for national security and even international security," Trump said during his address to a joint session of Congress in March.

"We’re working with everybody involved to try and get it, but we need it really for international world security, and I think we’re going to get it one way or the other; we’re going to get it," Trump said.