A recent YouGov survey has found that half of the Danish population views the US as a “threat” to their country. The results of the survey, conducted in the midst of growing tensions between Copenhagen and Washington, were published by the Guardian on Friday.
The survey was conducted amid the escalating tensions between the two capitals, sparked by US President Donald Trump’s plans to make Greenland a part of the US. The world’s largest island is an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark.
According to the survey, 46 percent of Danes consider the US a “very big” or “fairly big” threat, indicating that the island nation’s residents are more concerned about the US than about North Korea or Iran, which were seen as threats by 44 and 40 percent of the respondents, respectively.
However, at the top of the Danish public’s concerns remains Russia, with 86 percent of the respondents viewing it as a threat to their country.
In the same survey, 78 percent of the respondents were against the sale of Greenland to the US and 72 percent believed that the decision on Greenland’s membership in the US should be made by the 57,000 inhabitants of the Arctic island, not by Denmark.
The YouGov survey, conducted between January 15 and 22, involved over 1,000 participants.
Another survey, conducted by the Danish polling institute Verian earlier this week, found that only six percent of the Greenlanders want to be part of the US, contradicting the results of a previous study by the US company Patriot Polling, which found that 57 percent of the island’s residents support the idea of joining the US.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in an interview on The Megyn Kelly Show on Thursday that Trump’s efforts to acquire Greenland were “no joke.” “I know it’s a sensitive topic for Denmark, but it’s again a matter of national interest for the US” Rubio said.
Rubio claimed that the Arctic region will become “critical” for the shipping industry in the coming years and that Washington needs control over Greenland to prevent China from establishing a foothold on the world’s largest island.