US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was in the middle of several awkward exchanges as he landed in Copenhagen to meet a group of Nordic foreign ministers.
Mr Pompeo was rebuffed as he tried to shake hands with Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod, who preferred to abide by social distancing guidelines.
Faroe Islands Foreign Minister Jenis av Rana also refused to shake Mr Pompeo's hand, while Greenland's Foreign Minister Steen Lynge ended up settling for an elbow bump.
Mr Pompeo's visit to Denmark comes one year after US President Donald Trump set off alarm bells in the region by expressing an interest in buying Greenland.
"The concept came up and ...strategically, it's interesting," Mr Trump said last year.
"Greenland is not for sale. Greenland is not Danish. Greenland belongs to Greenland. I strongly hope that this is not meant seriously," Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in response.
During his visit, Mr Pompeo also waded back into the escalating spat between China and the US.
He repeated accusations about Chinese theft of US and European intellectual property, which he said was costing
"hundreds of thousands of jobs."
He referred to a US Justice Department indictment on Tuesday of two Chinese nationals over what it called a
decade-long cyber espionage campaign that targeted defence contractors, COVID-19 researchers and hundreds of other victims worldwide.
Mr Pompeo also referred to recent speeches by the head of the FBI and others that highlighted Chinese espionage activities.
"President Trump has said: 'Enough. We are not going to allow this to continue to happen,'" he told reporters.
Additional reporting by Reuters.
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