United Nations: President Donald Trump has signed an agreement with Denmark and Greenland aimed at strengthening Arctic and North Atlantic security, easing tensions over his repeated calls for Greenland to become part of the United States.
The signing Tuesday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York comes days after Trump announced the deal to bolster US military presence on the vast, icy island but keep it under Danish control. The governments provided few details of the agreement before the signing.
“This is tremendous for Europe and for the United States and for everybody,” Trump said just before the agreement was signed. “And for Greenland, it’s going to be incredible.”
For months, Trump has expressed his desire for Greenland to become part of the United States and issued threats to seize the semiautonomous territory from Denmark, a NATO ally. On Tuesday, he did not respond to questions about whether a US acquisition of Greenland was off the table.
The US has had a presence in Greenland for many years
Officials from the US, Greenland and Denmark negotiated for months behind the scenes, searching for solutions to address some of Trump’s security concerns about the mineral-rich island.
Trump’s designs on Greenland strained relations within NATO, with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen warning a US takeover would amount to the end of the Atlantic alliance.
The standoff unsettled many of Greenland’s roughly 56,000 people and drove a wedge between the US and Denmark and its European Union partners, who stepped up security exercises on and monetary support for the island.
Trade and hopes for a resource grab have all factored into concerns about Greenland’s future: About two-thirds of its territory sits inside the Arctic Circle, where melting sea ice has opened additional shipping routes
The United States was prominent in Greenland for decades but, since 1945, the US military presence in Greenland has decreased from thousands of soldiers on 17 bases and installations to roughly 200 soldiers on the remote Pituffik Space Base in the northwest. The base supports missile warning, missile defence and space surveillance operations for the US and NATO.
Addressing the United Nations General Assembly Tuesday morning, Trump provided a small window into details of the deal.
“We will immediately begin the process of developing a large military presence in the appropriate locations,” he said, including “building two very major military bases.”
Denmark’s parliament approved a bill last year to allow US military bases on Danish soil, widening a 2023 military agreement made with the Biden administration that gave US troops broad access to air bases in Denmark.
Trump previously insisted the US needed to “take Greenland,” to prevent Russia or China from doing the same. Though Trump said he would rather ” make a deal ” for the territory, he added: “one way or the other, we’re going to have Greenland.”
All parties present the agreement as a positive move
Mikkel Runge Olesen, a senior researcher at the Danish Institute of International Studies, said Greenland and Denmark come away from the deal with the possibility of “ending the crisis without compromising on sovereignty,” while the US gets a “somewhat more favourable” deal than under the existing defence treaty.
But relations overall between the US, Denmark and Greenland “are likely to be haunted by this long after Trump leaves office, and the crisis is likely to have significant and lasting negative impact on transatlantic relations more generally,” he said. “The lost trust will take decades to rebuild.”
Frederiksen said Tuesday that the deal being signed was a “deal that can last forever,” labelling it as good for the US, Greenland, Denmark and the broader NATO alliance.
“Mr President, you have been very clear: You don’t want adversaries to come too close,” she said. “I fully agree.”
Jens-Frederik Nielsen, Greenland’s prime minister, called it “a win-win-win agreement.”
“Your security is our security, and our security is your security,” he said Tuesday.
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