Published on •Updated
US President Donald Trump has signed a new Greenland security deal with Denmark and the island territory.
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Trump, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, and Greenland PM Jens-Frederik Nielsen signed the agreement on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Tuesday.
Under the terms of the deal, shared online by the Danish Foreign Ministry, the US will be permitted to expand its military presence on Greenland through the modernisation and enlargement of its current Pituffik Space Base and the establishment of new defence areas at Narsarsuaq and Mestersvig.
It will also allow the US “free access to and movement between” defence areas across Greenland, “including the Territorial Waters, by land, air and sea.” American aircraft may also fly over and land in any territory on the island, it states.
Trump previously said the deal – which also reaffirms the “sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark” and recognises Greenland’s “right to self determination” – would see Washington take “permanent control” of the island’s security.
“From now on, no U.S. adversary can EVER have a base in Greenland, have a military presence in Greenland, or make sensitive investments in Greenland, without our express written approval,” he wrote in a post on Truth Social on Friday.
Both Frederiksen and Nielsen have welcomed the agreement – which stops short of Trump’s wish to seize the territory for the US, a move he had argued was essential for the US’ “national security.”
In a statement on Friday, Frederiksen said the deal “strengthens our common security in the Arctic and the North Atlantic Area,” while Nielsen said it was “to the benefit of us all.”
The US is reported to have had 17 military facilities and over 10,000 troops on Greenland at the height of the Cold War. It currently operates just one base on the island, the Pituffik Space Base – the US Department of Defense’s northernmost installation.
Pituffik is used for missile warning, missile defense and space surveillance missions, per the US Space Force.
