Danish PM Frederiksen in New York, says Greenland security deal near signing
Danish PM Mette Frederiksen arrives in New York ahead of the UN General Assembly and a meeting with President Donald Trump, saying a security deal on Greenland is ready to sign.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has arrived in New York ahead of the United Nations General Assembly, where she is due to meet US President Donald Trump and expects a long-negotiated security agreement on Greenland to be signed.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, Frederiksen said the deal had been worked on for months and would be legally binding, covering security and defence policy. She described it as a good agreement for all the parties involved, adding that it served the wider NATO alliance and the West.
"I'm looking forward to the meeting that's tomorrow. I believe that we have made a good deal," she said, noting that the two leaders were known for speaking their minds, which she said made cooperation possible because each side knew where the other stood.
The agreement, announced by Trump last week, is expected to be signed by Denmark, Greenland and the United States. It would strengthen the US military presence on the Arctic island while leaving it under Danish control. The announcement followed months of threats by the president to take over the semiautonomous territory of a NATO ally.
Greenland's top leaders have said the deal, which has not been made public, was long overdue. Officials from the three sides had negotiated quietly for months, seeking ways to address American security concerns about the island of roughly 56,000 residents. For Trump, the pact offers a foreign policy achievement ahead of the US midterm elections.
Frederiksen stressed that the arrangement would not affect Danish sovereignty over Greenland, which is part of the Danish kingdom along with the Faroe Islands. "We do not cede sovereignty, and I can guarantee that I will never do that as prime minister of Denmark," she said.
She argued that retaining sovereignty was compatible with deepening defence ties, pointing to Denmark's membership of the European Union and NATO, its long-standing defence cooperation with the United States and a closer bilateral defence agreement that has been developed in Denmark.
Denmark and the United States already have a long-standing security agreement allowing US forces to be deployed in Greenland. It was not immediately clear how the new deal would differ from that arrangement.