UNITED NATIONS, September 22 (Reuters) – The U.S. president, Donald Trump, and the leaders of Greenland and Denmark signed, on Tuesday, an agreement that would allow a greater U.S. military presence in Greenland and may resolve a deadlock around the island, which has a strategic location and is rich in minerals.
The agreement, signed during Trump’s visit to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, does not meet Trump’s demand that the United States incorporate Greenland as a U.S. territory to curb the growing presence of Russia and China in the Arctic.
However, the agreement allows a greater U.S. military presence on the frozen territory, an option that emerged as Greenland’s leaders opposed a full annexation by the United States.
A text of the agreement released after the signing ceremony states that the United States may establish a defense system “Gold Dome” in Greenland as a shield against ballistic missile threats. The shortest route from Europe to North America passes through the Arctic island, where the U.S.’s northernmost military base is located.
In his address to world leaders gathered at the UN before the signing ceremony, Trump stated that the agreement gives the U.S. “permanent control over security and all other needs on that territory.”
“No adversary of the United States will be permitted to establish a military presence in Greenland, nor to undertake sensitive investments there without our express written approval,” said Trump.
Trump signed the agreement together with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen, at a trilateral ceremony after his UN address.
Frederiksen described the agreement as a pact that could “last forever” and said it underscored the importance of the NATO alliance and respected Greenland’s right to self-determination.
A STRONG NATO
Nielsen stressed the importance of NATO in the Arctic region. “We believe it is vital to keep NATO strong, also in the Arctic, where the alliance has a fundamental role to play,” he said.
Greenland, a former colony and now a semi-autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark, sits between the Arctic and North America and possesses vast energy resources.
The United States already operates the Pituffik Space Base, in the remote northwest of Greenland. The agreement is expected to open two new military installations: Narsarsuaq, a Cold War-era air base whose population has dwindled to only a few dozen people, and Mestersvig, currently used by the Sirius Dog Sled Patrol, a unit of the Danish special forces.
“We will immediately begin the process of developing a large military presence at the appropriate site. We will build two large-scale military bases,” Trump said in his UN address.
Trump’s refusal to rule out using military or economic force to acquire Greenland triggered a diplomatic crisis in January within NATO and forced Denmark and the island’s government into months of intense negotiations.
“The reason we can conclude this agreement, which is beneficial from Greenland’s, the United States’, and Europe’s point of view, as well as on behalf of the Kingdom of Denmark, is that it is a matter of security policy,” Frederiksen said in New York on Monday.
The text of the agreement states that the pact amends a 1951 defense treaty that has served as the legal basis for the U.S. presence.
The accord marks a shift from Trump’s earlier ambitions to fully acquire Greenland, an island three times the size of Texas and with a population of only 57,000 people spread along its rugged coastline.
But it represents a significant expansion of U.S. military infrastructure on the island — the first major increase since the Cold War, when the United States maintained 17 facilities and more than 10,000 troops on site.
