United States President Donald Trump said yesterday that he had secured "full and permanent access" to Greenland for the United States in an agreement with NATO, while the Alliance's Secretary General said that allies would have to strengthen their commitment to Arctic security to counter threats from Russia and China.
News of the framework agreement came after Trump dropped his threat of tariffs and ruled out the possibility of taking Greenland by force, bringing some relief to a situation that threatened to escalate into the biggest rift in transatlantic relations in decades.
However, the details of the eventual deal remained unclear, with Denmark insisting that its sovereignty over the island was not a negotiable issue.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte told Reuters in an interview in Davos that it was now up to NATO's senior commanders to work out the details of the additional security needs. "I have no doubt that we can do that quite quickly. I would certainly hope for 2026, I hope even early 2026," he said.
After meeting with Rutte, Trump had previously said there could be a deal that would satisfy his desire for the Golden Dome missile defense system and access to key minerals, while blocking, he said, Russia and China's ambitions in the Arctic.
Rutte said mineral exploitation was not a topic during his meeting with Trump, adding that specific negotiations on the Arctic island would continue between the US, Denmark and Greenland itself.
One of the people familiar with the talks between Rutte and Trump told the Financial Times that the status of British bases in Cyprus could be a model that could be considered as a way to strengthen the US presence on the strategically important island - although the United Kingdom has sovereignty over its bases in Cyprus.
“It remains to be seen what an eventual deal on Greenland would look like,” a senior Western official told the FT. “It is not for sale, nor is it for lease. Denmark is not prepared to compromise. Very little has changed from where this all began.”
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said that no negotiations with NATO have been held regarding the sovereignty of Greenland, a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark. “It is still a difficult and serious situation, but progress has been made in the sense that we have now brought things to where they need to be. Namely, that we can talk about how we improve common security in the Arctic region,” Frederiksen said.
Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said yesterday that he did not know the details of the agreement currently being discussed, but welcomed the messages that Trump had conveyed the previous day. “We are ready to cooperate more, but this is something that we have to discuss with mutual respect,” Nielsen said, adding that Greenland wants to negotiate a better partnership with the United States, but stressed that there are lines that cannot be crossed.
"We are ready to negotiate a better partnership with the US, but sovereignty is a red line," Nielsen said. Asked about the Golden Dome missile defense system, Nielsen said, "I am confident that we can find a solution that benefits all of us."
Western officials have warned that the compromise between Rutte and Trump is just an initial agreement to continue negotiations, aimed at reducing tensions between Washington and its European allies.
Guardian columnist Patrick Wintour also points out that it is questionable whether the deal will hold up, given Trump's unpredictable behavior, and whether it really provides the US president with access to Greenland's key minerals, as he claims. Also unresolved is the issue of the multi-billion dollar "Golden Dome" defense shield, which could potentially be partially located in Greenland.
Wintour says that while there are indications that the new framework, which Trump has agreed to, is modeled more on the British bases in Cyprus, that would be surprising, given that those bases are treated as a sovereign territory of the United Kingdom, administered by the British Ministry of Defense. As many as 20.000 Cypriots live in that sovereign British territory, and they have the right to transfer the property to their family or sell it to a third party.
According to the New York Times, Denmark could also transfer parts of its territory to the United States, so that Washington could establish new military bases there under American sovereignty. The issue was discussed during a meeting on Wednesday at NATO headquarters. Such possible transfers of sovereignty would still have to be worked out and approved by both the Danish and Greenlandic authorities.
The current 1951 agreement between Denmark and the United States is more focused on ports, but it gives the United States permission “to construct, install, maintain and operate facilities and equipment, including meteorological and communications facilities and equipment.” It also allows “the United States to construct such facilities and conduct such activities, provided that they do not interfere with the activities of the Kingdom of Denmark.”
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