US, Denmark and Greenland to Sign Arctic Security Deal at UN
Trump, Frederiksen and Nielsen will sign a deal in New York allowing a larger US military presence on Greenland, potentially ending a months-long standoff.
President Donald Trump is set to meet the leaders of Denmark and Greenland in New York on Tuesday to sign a trilateral agreement that would permit a larger American military presence on the strategically located island, potentially drawing a line under a diplomatic crisis that has unsettled NATO since January.
The signing is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. ET (1630 GMT) at the United Nations General Assembly, where Trump will be joined by Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen.
Greenland, a semi-autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark, lies between the Arctic and North America and is believed to hold vast energy resources. Trump's refusal to rule out military or economic force to acquire the island triggered the standoff, pushing Copenhagen and the island's government into intensive negotiations.
Under the emerging agreement, the United States would expand its military footprint beyond the existing Pituffik Space Base, with two additional sites expected to open: Narsarsuaq, a former Cold War airbase whose population has shrunk to a few dozen, and Mestersvig, presently used by the Sirius Dog Sled Patrol, an elite Danish special forces unit.
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen has said the arrangement would bring Arctic security under NATO's collective watch rather than leaving it to Washington and Copenhagen alone. Trump, for his part, said on Friday that the deal gives the US "permanent control over security, and all other needs, in Greenland." Denmark has not responded directly to that assertion, but has maintained that the agreement respects the kingdom's sovereignty and Greenland's right to self-determination.
The text of the agreement has not been published ahead of the signing, and it remains unclear whether it amends the 1951 defence treaty that has served as the legal basis for the US presence or establishes a new framework.
Even so, the deal marks a retreat from Trump's earlier ambition of outright acquisition. It nonetheless represents the most significant expansion of US military infrastructure on the island since the Cold War, when Washington maintained 17 installations and more than 10,000 personnel there. Greenland is roughly three times the size of Texas, with a population of only about 57,000 scattered along its rugged coastline.