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Denmark, Greenland and the U.S. are to sign a deal on Greenland’s security on Tuesday, an agreement Denmark says will put Arctic security under NATO’s watch rather than leaving it solely to Washington and Copenhagen.
The agreement, to be signed at the UN General Assembly in New York at 10:30 a.m. ET on Tuesday, has not been made public. Denmark and Greenland say the deal will benefit the Arctic island and respect its sovereignty.
The deal is expected to allow the U.S., which already has one military base in Greenland, to expand its military presence to two additional sites.
One of those sites is Narsarsuaq, whose population has dwindled to a few dozen people since the U.S. closed its Cold War-era Bluie West One military base there in the 1950s. The other is Mestersvig, a military outpost currently used by the Sirius Dog Sled Patrol, a special forces unit that enforces Danish sovereignty in the territory, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Trilateral signing ceremony planned
U.S. President Donald Trump will meet in New York on Tuesday with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen for a trilateral signing ceremony, a White House official said.
The deal follows months of pressure from Trump, who has said the U.S. should control Greenland and at times refused to rule out using military or economic force to acquire the semi-autonomous Danish territory. His threats peaked in January, triggering a diplomatic crisis within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the military defence alliance, and pushing Denmark and Greenland into negotiations aimed at defusing the pressure.
The agreement “will be in a form where responsibility for security in the Arctic is not only Danish or American,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen told national broadcaster TV2 on Sunday. He said that, to a large extent, “it would be NATO that looks after the Arctic.”
It remained unclear whether the deal amends an existing 1951 defence agreement that is the legal basis for the U.S. presence in Greenland.
“It appears that we are now using this crisis to try to strengthen NATO’s cohesion through Greenland,” said Ulrik Pram Gad, a researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS).
Strategic interest in Greenland
Washington’s strategic interest in Greenland dates back to the Second World War. In 1941, the U.S. signed a deal with Danish envoy Henrik Kauffmann, who acted without authority from his country, then under German occupation.
Iceland summoned the U.S. ambassador after President Donald Trump posted a map showing the U.S. flag covering North America, Greenland and Iceland. Magnús Eyjólfsson, a journalist with national broadcaster RÚV, discusses how Icelanders are reacting to Trump’s expansionist rhetoric and why his recent threats to take over Greenland hit particularly close to home.
The U.S. sought the deal to keep Greenland out of German hands and secure the North Atlantic supply route between North America and Europe. Under the agreement, the U.S. built airfields, naval facilities and weather stations across the island, reaching around 5,500 military personnel by 1943, according to DIIS.
In 1946, then-U.S. president Harry Truman sought to buy the island as a strategic asset for $100 million US in gold, but Copenhagen declined to sell. Instead, a new agreement was signed in 1951 that gave the U.S. military extensive rights in Greenland but was tied to the existence of NATO.
“I don’t think Denmark and Greenland will sign if the same NATO clause isn’t included,” said Gad.
Cold War presence
During the Cold War, the U.S. maintained 17 military installations and more than 10,000 personnel in Greenland. Today only Pituffik Space Base remains, with some 150 U.S. military personnel.
A NATO spokesperson said on Saturday that the alliance welcomed the new agreement, which would “help advance security, stability and co-operation in this vital region.”
Rasmussen, who travelled to New York overnight, declined to discuss the contents of the agreement.
“But we have said from the start that we are open to accommodating the United States’ legitimate security interests,” he told Danish news agency Ritzau on Monday.
Trump said in a social media post on Friday the agreement gave the U.S. “permanent control over security, and all other needs, in Greenland,” and that no U.S. adversary could have a base or military presence there without Washington’s written approval.
Denmark has not responded to Trump’s assertion, though Copenhagen earlier acknowledged it underinvested in Greenland’s defence for decades and has pledged to expand its military presence on the island, including more NATO troops.
Greenland’s government has sought to reassure the public about the deal.
Erik Jensen, an opposition lawmaker in Greenland, wrote on social media that he had read the draft agreement. “I feel reassured and am not worried,” he said, adding that the island’s foreign minister was handling the work well.
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