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Denmark has said that it will summon the US ambassador to Copenhagen to respond to reports that US intelligence agencies have been ordered to increase espionage in Greenland.

The Danish foreign minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, said on Wednesday that he was concerned about the report in the Wall Street Journal, telling the Ritzau news agency: “It worries me a lot, because we don’t spy between friends.”

Speaking on his way to a meeting in Warsaw, he added: “I can’t know if it’s true because it’s in a newspaper. But it doesn’t seem to be strongly rejected by those who speak out. That worries me.”

High-ranking officials working under Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, issued the instruction to agency heads in a “collection emphasis message”, the Journal reported.

Such messages customarily help to set intelligence priorities and direct resources and attention to high-interest targets.

The Central Intelligence Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency were all included in the message. It told chiefs to study Greenland’s independence movement and attitudes to American efforts to extract resources on the island, according to the Journal, citing two unnamed officials familiar with the matter.

Seasoned intelligence operatives say the Arctic island of about 56,000 inhabitants has not historically been a target of US espionage activity.

The move will further alarm Denmark, a US ally and Nato member, which has repeatedly vowed that the island is not available for sale or annexation. The country is planning to spend $1.5bn to protect Greenland, which has autonomous status under Denmark’s constitutional monarchy.

Trump, who has mused since his first presidency about the possibility of possessing Greenland, refused to rule out seizing the 836,000 sq mile territory by force in an interview with NBC that was broadcast last weekend.

“I don’t say I’m going to do it, but I don’t rule out anything,” he said. “We need Greenland very badly. Greenland is a very small amount of people, which we’ll take care of, and we’ll cherish them, and all of that. But we need that for international security.”

The comments renewed a vow the president made in an address to a joint session of Congress in March, when he said: “One way or the other, we’re going to get it.”

The Journal quoted a national security council spokesperson, James Hewitt, as saying: “The president has been very clear that the US is concerned about the security of Greenland and the Arctic.” He declined to comment on the switch of intelligence focus to the island.

Gabbard issued a statement saying the newspaper “should be ashamed of aiding deep state actors who seek to undermine the president by politicizing and leaking classified information”.

Denmark’s embassy in Washington has not commented.

The intelligence messages follows a visit to Greenland in March by the US vice-president, JD Vance; the then national security adviser, Mike Waltz; and Chris Wright, the energy secretary, that was fiercely condemned by Danish leaders and local Greenland politicians.

Mette Frederiksen, Denmark’s prime minister, said the visit put “completely unacceptable pressure on Greenland, Greenlandic politicians and the Greenlandic population”.

She added: “President Trump is serious. He wants Greenland.”

• This article was amended on 7 May 2025 to clarify that Greenland comprises 836,000 sq miles, not sq feet.