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The US seizing of Venezuela's leader has faced strong criticism from both America's friends and foes at an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council, BBC reported. 

Many member states agreed with the US that Nicolás Maduro had been an illegitimate and repressive leader. 

But many also condemned the US military action as a breach of international law and the UN Charter, and they demanded a democratic transition that reflected the will of the Venezuelan people, according to BBC. 

Greenland is seeking to strengthen ties with the United States, and its citizens should not fear an imminent American takeover, Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said on Monday, following renewed interest in the Arctic island by US President Donald Trump, Reuters reported. 

European powers rallied behind Greenland on Monday, after the US military operation in which Venezuela's leader was seized, rekindling concerns that the island, an autonomous Danish territory, might face a similar scenario.

"We are not in the situation where we are thinking that a takeover of the country might happen overnight," Nielsen said at a press conference in the capital Nuuk, speaking via a translator. "You cannot compare Greenland to Venezuela. We are a democratic country."

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday warned of the risk of heightened instability in Venezuela following the US capture of President Nicolas Maduro, as Washington told the Security Council it had no plans to occupy the country, Reuters reported. 

The 15-member council met at UN headquarters in New York just hours before Maduro was due to appear in a Manhattan federal court to face drug-related charges, including narco-terrorism conspiracy. Maduro has denied any criminal wrongdoing.

“I am deeply concerned about the possible intensification of instability in the country, the potential impact on the region, and the precedent it may set for how relations between and among states are conducted,” Reuters quoted Guterres as saying in a statement delivered to the council by UN political affairs chief Rosemary DiCarlo, according to Reuters. 

The deposed Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro pleaded not guilty to drugs, weapons and narco-terrorism charges on Monday, two days after his capture by US special forces in an operation ordered by Donald Trump that sent shockwaves around the world, The Guardian reported. 

The brevity and formality of the arraignment hearing in federal court in Manhattan – barely 30 minutes during which Maduro was asked to confirm his name and that he understood the four charges against him – belied the far-reaching consequences of the US action.

As Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores addressed the court in lower Manhattan, the UN security council held an emergency meeting just a few miles to the north, where a dozen countries condemned the US “crime of aggression” and secretary general António Guterres suggested the operation constituted a breach of international law, according to The Guardian.