COPENHAGEN, Denmark – Some Danes instructed CBS Information on the streets of Copenhagen they’re more and more apprehensive about their nation’s safety due to what they see because the rising risk from close by Russia and issues 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 mentioned in a social media put up on X that he and officers from Greenland and Denmark “renewed our dedication to a robust and mutually helpful 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 although 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 all the time seemed to america as “the best of democracy,” however believes the nation is turning into “increasingly autocratic.” She mentioned that’s troubling because of Russia’s repeated, current 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 mentioned, though she added that she would not need the U.S. to take over Greenland regardless of safety issues associated to Russia.
Denmark is constantly ranked as one of many world’s happiest international locations, in keeping with the International Happiness Index. However in current 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 ways by Russia.
In September, Copenhagen Airport was compelled to droop flights because of unidentified drone sightings. Russia, nevertheless, 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 pressure within the pursuits of forces looking for by all means to extend the Ukrainian battle and prolong it to different international locations.”
Nonetheless, one 70-year-old Danish girl instructed CBS Information that the Danish sense of safety and contentment is waning.
“The Russians need to undergo Denmark to return to Europe,” she instructed CBS Information. “I believe individuals my age are extra apprehensive as a result of we bear in mind – we’re after World Conflict II kids – so, we bear in mind these days, and we’ve heard about it our whole childhood, concerning the struggle and the difficulties and all of the horror that goes with struggle.”
Copenhagen resident Thomas Geuken, mentioned he was 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 mentioned, ‘Nicely, it is half empty due to the struggle in Ukraine and Russia. So it performs an enormous half in our considering.'”
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