NEW YORK, January 25. /TASS/. US President Donald Trump berated Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen over Greenland for 45 minutes in a 2025 phone call, The New York Times reported.
Frederiksen declined to provide any details to the newspaper. "A phone call between two colleagues has to be a phone call between two colleagues," she said.
The telephone conversation took place on January 15, 2025. The Danish prime minister said in a TV interview later that she hoped "everyone, including the Americans, would respect the fact that the Greenlanders will be the ones determining and making decisions about their future."
The US president said on January 21, 2026, following talks with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte that the "framework" of a deal over Greenland's future had been reached. The Axios news website reported that Rutte's proposal did not include the transfer of overall sovereignty over Greenland from Denmark to the United States. "The plan includes updating the 1951 "Greenland Defense Agreement" between the US and Denmark, which allowed the US to build military bases in the island and establish ‘defense areas’ if NATO believed it necessary," the media outlet noted.
Greenland is part of Denmark as an autonomous territory. In 1951, Washington and Copenhagen, in addition to allied commitments to NATO, signed the Greenland Defense Treaty, under which the United States has committed itself to defending the island from possible aggression.