Theme: Denmark

Some 40,000 students were on strike at 57 schools across Denmark, including 12,000 to 13,000 at the protest in Copenhagen, according to organizers. Under the banner “Enough is Enough,” 11 high school and university student associations marched from Copenhagen’s City Hall Square to parliament over the proposed cuts to free up funds for defense spending. In a draft budget bill, Denmark’s center-left government plans to abolish the student grant (SU) for students who live with their parents and whose parents’ total annual income exceeds 700,000 Danish kroner (US$104,000). According to the Higher Education Ministry, around 14,000 students are expected to lose their grant, and some 8,000 would see it reduced. Student protests that started in France have spread in recent weeks to other European countries.

According to Reuters, in texts republished by The Straits Times and Al Arabiya, Greenland’s Parliament ratified on Tuesday the security agreement struck earlier this year with US President Donald Trump, by 16 votes in favor, none against and 7 abstentions. The deal expands the US military’s role on the island, paving the way for two new military bases and Trump’s “Golden Dome” missile defense system, while reaffirming Danish sovereignty and Greenlanders’ right to self-determination. The executive agreement will enter into force once Denmark and Greenland have ratified it; the Danish parliament is due to give it a first reading on November 11 and a final vote on November 19, and it does not require approval from the US Senate. During the debate, the opposition party Naleraq, the most prominent political voice for Greenland’s independence, questioned the deal’s economic value.

Greenlandic lawmakers voted 16-0 for the agreement, with seven abstentions, in Nuuk, on the deal between the island, Denmark and the United States to strengthen security in the Arctic and the North Atlantic. The trilateral deal paves the way for more U.S. bases in Greenland and eases tensions over Trump’s repeated calls for the island to become part of the United States, while keeping the self-governing island under Danish control. The U.S. State Department said the vote marks another major victory for American national security. Danish lawmakers are set to debate the text later this month, and the deal enters into force once the necessary parliamentary processes of the Kingdom of Denmark, in conjunction with Greenland, are completed. Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said after the vote — “Greenland is our country” — and that cooperation must respect the people and rights of Greenlanders.

The Greenlandic parliament approved on Tuesday the security agreement with Denmark and the United States by 16 votes to none, with seven abstentions. Signed in September by Donald Trump, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, the text paves the way for two new US military bases and for the “Golden Dome” missile defense system, keeping the island under Danish control and reaffirming Greenlanders’ right to self-determination — according to a Reuters report republished by USA Today. The executive agreement enters into force once Denmark and Greenland ratify it and does not require approval from the US Senate; the Danish parliament gives the bill a first reading on November 11, with a vote on November 19. Naleraq opposition party chair Pele Broberg said Greenland is looking for a better agreement for when it becomes an independent state and that no economic benefit has been gained from the agreement.

Denmark has reached an agreement with Estonia to recover the money from a military aid package meant to supply artillery ammunition to Ukraine. Estonia paid 9.5 million euros to Datasel as a prepayment but did not receive functional artillery shells in return.

Russian Ambassador to Denmark Vladimir Barbin told TASS that Denmark currently serves as a logistical base for the Ukrainian armed forces and that Copenhagen’s grant-based military aid to Kiev has already exceeded 10.5 billion euros. Barbin also said Copenhagen’s intention to order Patriot missiles from Washington for subsequent transfer to Kiev shows that Denmark is financing the continuation of hostilities rather than seeking a political and diplomatic settlement of the conflict.

Russia’s ambassador to Copenhagen, Vladimir Barbin, said in an interview with the TASS news agency that Denmark is mobilizing resources and working to undermine Russia’s positions in the post-Soviet space and in Global South countries.

A cyberattack targeted a Danish software system used in at least 380 supermarkets in France, forcing some stores to throw out frozen produce, according to The New York Times.

The United States will gain a base for anti-submarine operations near the GIUK gap, between Greenland, Iceland and the United Kingdom, under the September 22 agreement with Denmark and Greenland, Troy Bouffard, director of the Center for Arctic Security and Resilience, told Sputnik. The agreement includes Narsarsuaq as an air bridge and a base on the western edge of the gap and a smaller installation at Mestersvig, for radar and communications.

Russia has begun sabotage operations against Danish companies supplying Ukraine after concluding that broader disruption efforts failed, according to Reuters, in a text republished by The Straits Times. Analyst Josefine Christensen of Denmark’s PET intelligence service said at a conference in Copenhagen that Russia is now trying to hit targets with a direct impact on the front line, namely weapons production, according to Reuters, in a text republished by SRN News.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry summoned Danish Ambassador Rolf Holmboe and lodged a strong protest on September 30, according to TASS. Moscow accuses a Danish Air Force Fennec helicopter of “unprofessional and provocative actions” involving the Baltic Fleet corvette Soobrazitelny, which occurred on September 14 in international waters in the southwestern Baltic Sea, according to the same agency.

The United States, Denmark and Greenland signed on Tuesday, 22 September 2026, a security agreement that expands the US military presence on the island. The signing took place on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York, by Donald Trump, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen. According to Reuters, in a dispatch carried by The Jerusalem Post, the text authorises bases at Narsarsuaq in the south and Mestersvig in the east, expands the Pituffik base, which serves as a missile early-warning site, and lets US aircraft overfly, land and operate anywhere in Greenland, including its territorial waters and undersea space. No non-NATO country may keep a “persistent” military presence without unanimous approval by all three parties. The deal has no expiry date and amends the 1951 defence treaty. Trump said the agreement gives the United States “permanent control over security and all other needs” on the territory, and that no adversary will be allowed to establish a military presence there. Frederiksen said the text respects “the territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark, as well as Greenland’s right to self-determination”, according to Al Jazeera, which quoted Nielsen saying “it is vital to keep NATO strong”. The deal ends months of standoff after Trump refused to rule out military or economic force to take the island, triggering a diplomatic crisis inside the alliance in January 2026. The US military presence in Greenland shrank from 17 installations and more than 10,000 personnel during the Cold War to about 200 at Pituffik.

The United States and Denmark signed on Tuesday, 22 September 2026, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York, the security agreement for Greenland, and Donald Trump said Washington will build two “very major” military bases on the territory, according to The Guardian and USA Today. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenlandic government leader Jens-Frederik Nielsen signed with Trump; Frederiksen said the text “respects the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark” and Greenland’s right to self-determination. The deal expands the US military presence without transferring sovereignty, bars US adversaries from establishing bases or investing on the island without written approval, and has no end date, according to a State Department official cited by USA Today. Reuters reported that Washington plans to reopen the Narsarsuaq base in southern Greenland.