MOSCOW, January 15. /TASS/. Denmark has sent a clear signal that it may withdraw from the North Atlantic Alliance if Washington moves from rhetoric to forceful action regarding the annexation of Greenland to the United States, former Austrian Foreign Minister and head of the G.O.R.K.I. Center at St. Petersburg State University, Karin Kneissl, told TASS in an interview.
"Yes, the Danish government has already indicated that such a risk exists," she stated, responding to a question about the possibility of the country leaving NATO due to the Greenland situation.
At the same time, Kneissl noted that it is not yet possible to say exactly what form the confrontation between the USA and Denmark will take, but "in a certain sense, the situation is archaic." "Whether there will be a confrontation with Denmark—verbal or otherwise—we shall see," she remarked. "On the other hand, it [the situation] is not entirely archaic because similar methods of purchasing concessions and establishing close cooperation have already existed in history."
The former Austrian foreign minister recalled that the British had already employed similar practices through their East India Trading Company. "They concluded trade agreements and then, over time, seized those states," she specified. "That was colonialism, not archaic, but colonialism proper. It was an era that has partially ended and partially not."
Kneissl emphasized that the course being pursued by the USA on the international stage and "kidnapping presidents, this is no longer colonial or imperial behavior," but precisely archaic. "It resembles Vikings who would grab some chieftain and say: ‘this one we are taking with us.’ However you look at it, no other word besides ‘archaic’ comes to mind here," the former minister concluded.
Greenland dispute
On January 14, Danish and Greenlandic foreign ministers met in Washington with Vance and Rubio. Following the talks, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said Denmark had failed to persuade the US to abandon its ambitions to annex Greenland. He also stated that neither Russia nor China poses a security threat to the island.
Donald Trump has repeatedly stated that Greenland should join the US. During his first presidential term, he proposed buying the island, and in March 2025 he said he was confident it could be annexed. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller previously questioned Denmark’s right to control Greenland and said it should become part of the US.
Greenland is Denmark’s autonomous territory. In 1951, Washington and Copenhagen signed the Greenland Defense Agreement alongside their NATO commitments. Under the treaty, the US committed to defend the island from potential aggression.