President Donald Trump said his administration reached an agreement with Denmark giving the US “permanent control over security” for Greenland, ending for now a saga that fractured the transatlantic alliance. Full details of the deal were not immediately provided by Trump on Friday, though the leaders of Denmark and Greenland said they expected the pact to be signed next week at the United Nations General Assembly.
The deal touted by the US president appears to be a significant pullback from his previous attempts to take over the semi-autonomous Danish territory. Trump's repeated demands regarding Greenland fomented distrust between the US and Europe, presenting one of the gravest challenges to the NATO alliance since the end of World War II.
Trump announced the arrangement on social media, saying it addressed “ALL of our many US concerns” and would come at “NO COST to the United States.”
“The United States will FOREVER have the complete ability to do what is necessary in Greenland in order to secure and defend the security of Greenland, and the United States of America,” he wrote.
It's unclear how the new deal materially changes the current security arrangement with Greenland. The US has long had enormous latitude to decide troop levels on the island, and has in fact been scaling back its presence there for decades.
“The only thing that is potentially ground breaking is the reporting that the US would be able to establish bases at will without consulting Greenland or Denmark,” said Imran Bayoumi, a former Pentagon adviser now at the Atlantic Council. “But, it's not clear what the reaction of Greenlanders will be to that announcement and it's not clear that the change was worth the two-plus years of turmoil in the transatlantic relationship.”
The US first struck an agreement with Denmark in 1951 to send miliary forces to Greenland. The pact stipulated that Washington consult with and inform Copenhagen of its plans, but even that was seen as a largely pro forma condition that required little more than notification. The agreement has no expiration date.
A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity to outline the new deal's terms, said it would explicitly ban any non-NATO country from establishing military bases in Greenland and restrict investments on the island deemed to threaten the US. It would also allow the US to expand the number of bases in Greenland as required, the official said.
Still, the Trump administration's claims about the historic nature and benefits of the agreement were difficult to assess, given it did not release its full text.
The announcement could signal a resolution to a standoff that was almost entirely of Trump's own making. Since returning to office last year, Trump had attempted to intimidate Denmark — a NATO ally — into handing over Greenland, including by making veiled threats to seize the island by force and threatening higher tariffs on goods from European economies that did not fall in line.
It would also mark a victory for Denmark and Greenland if the settlement brought an end to Trump's threats without ceding sovereignty of the island to the US.
“I am glad that we are about to make a great agreement for Greenland, the Kingdom of Denmark, and the United States,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in a statement Friday, adding that it “strengthens our common security in the Arctic and the North Atlantic Area and therefore is great for NATO and Europe as well.”
Trump's musings about taking over Greenland date back to his first term in the White House. He has warned that Russia and China desired a foothold there and that only the US could keep them out. But Danish and Greenlandic leaders have long ruled out the idea of giving up control of the island.
“We are not going to cede sovereignty,” Greenland's Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said in May. Some Danes sought to boycott American goods in response to the president's threats.
Trump's pressure campaign came to a dramatic head in January during the World Economic Forum at Davos, where Trump assailed European allies in his address.
The president, though, eventually backed down following talks with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, saying instead that he had reached the parameters of a framework agreement regarding Greenland and the Arctic region. Denmark, Greenland and the US at the time agreed to establish a working group to manage the dispute.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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