USA-Denmark agreement: Trump gets a Greenland deal

dpa | The USA, Denmark and Greenland have surprisingly announced a breakthrough after a long dispute over the strategically important Arctic island. The governments of Denmark and Greenland announced that an agreement with the USA is expected to be signed next week. US President Donald Trump had recently declared that the agreement had already been sealed. The presentation of the governments in Copenhagen and Nuuk sounded somewhat different, and not only on this point.

According to Trump, with the agreement the USA will secure extensive powers and control over the world's largest island, which is largely autonomous but belongs to Danish territory. “The United States has entered into an agreement with the Kingdom of Denmark and Greenland that grants the United States permanent control over security and all other matters in Greenland,” he wrote on the Truth Social platform. From now on, the USA should do whatever is necessary to defend the island. They would not incur any costs as a result of the agreement.

Trump has repeatedly threatened to annex the former Danish colony in the past. Then he tried to force a sale to the USA with punitive tariffs. Trump justified this with US security interests and that enemies of the United States such as China and Russia wanted to take control of the island - and Denmark had nothing to oppose this.

Trump has now announced that their enemies will no longer be allowed to set up military bases on the island without the express permission of the USA. The same applies to “sensitive investments” in Greenland – although he did not elaborate on what this meant.

The Danish and Greenlandic sides did not confirm this representation of Trump. They did not provide any information about the specific content of the agreement or the rights or obligations of the contracting parties. They also pointed out further intermediate stages that were still to come. According to the Danish government, the agreement will be sealed at the UN General Assembly next week and will then require parliamentary approval before it can come into force.

It is a deal that “strengthens our common security in the Arctic and the North Atlantic and is therefore also good for NATO and Europe,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen was quoted as saying in the joint statement. It would also recognize the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Danish Kingdom and the right of the Greenlandic people to self-determination.

Frederiksen spoke of the “prospect of a good agreement”. Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said, "The agreement recognizes Greenland's interests and our place in international cooperation. It benefits us all."

Trump's previous threats had sparked great outrage and widespread resistance among European states and the US's NATO partners. At times the transatlantic alliance appeared to be facing a severe test. Germany also supported Greenland and Denmark in the conflict, both of which repeatedly emphasized that the strategically important and resource-rich island was not for sale.

As early as February, however, it was said in NATO circles that it would probably result in the USA being allowed to expand its military presence on Greenland in the future and possibly also having a say in certain investments on the Arctic island. Greenland and the surrounding sea are seen in the alliance as a gateway to the North Atlantic, which plays a central role in important trade, transport and communication connections between North America and Europe and must be protected.

Thanks to an agreement from 1951, the USA already has a lot of military leeway on the ice island. The US military currently only maintains one military base there: the Pituffik Space Base in northwest Greenland, which is important for missile defense and radar surveillance and is intended to ensure the US armed forces' superiority in space. Trump spoke several times about the idea of ​​building a missile defense system called “Golden Dome” on the island, which could be directly in the flight path of possible missiles aimed at the United States if an enemy like Russia attacked.

The Greenland conflict has long been a highly explosive issue for NATO. On the one hand, the alliance must fear for its credibility if a leading member threatens to annex areas of another NATO state through economic or military coercion. On the other hand, it would have been a catastrophe for NATO if the USA had left the alliance in the dispute over this. After all, NATO's deterrence relies primarily on the US's nuclear weapons arsenal and the strength of its conventional armed forces.