Denmark

A founding NATO member since 1949, Denmark is a small but strategically significant Nordic state of roughly 6 million people. It controls the Danish Straits, the Oresund, Great Belt and Little Belt, the only maritime route connecting the Baltic Sea to the North Sea without passing through the English Channel. It hosts US forces and F-35 squadrons and participates in the Joint Expeditionary Force.

After Britain announced it would interdict sanctioned shadow fleet vessels in Channel waters, the Danish Straits became the sole alternative Baltic exit for over 600 sanctioned tankers . Whether Copenhagen follows London's lead in closing its own waters to that fleet remains the pivotal open question in the economic campaign against Russia's oil revenue; Sweden's seizure of the cargo ship Caffa near Trelleborg showed coordinated Baltic enforcement is operationally feasible.

Denmark's domestic intelligence service PET rated Iran's state-directed terror threat at 4 out of 5 on 29 May 2026, citing plots against Israeli, Jewish and dissident targets recruited through criminal networks across Europe, including Denmark itself . That assessment makes Denmark a named participant in Europe's active Iranian counter-intelligence effort, with direct implications for Nordic law enforcement cooperation.