NYT: U.S. and Denmark reach security deal on Greenland

President Trump said on Friday that his administration had reached a deal with Denmark and Greenland to expand the U.S. security presence in Greenland, a semiautonomous Danish territory, raising the possibility of a diplomatic solution to a U.S.-made threat that nearly upended the Western alliance, The New York Times reports.

The full contours of the deal Mr. Trump was describing were not immediately clear, but shortly after his announcement, leaders of Greenland and Denmark issued statements indicating they expected an agreement to be signed next week during the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

The two sides described the agreement in very different terms. Mr. Trump claimed the United States had secured “permanent control over security, and all other needs” in Greenland, while the Danish prime minister said the deal “recognizes the sovereignty and territorial integrity” of the Kingdom of Denmark.

That description would mean the agreement fell well short of Mr. Trump’s longstanding demand of total control over Greenland.

Earlier this year, Mr. Trump said that “anything less” than U.S. ownership of Greenland would be “unacceptable.” He said possession of the territory was “psychologically important” to him.

Instead, what Mr. Trump described on Friday was a deal that would prevent U.S. adversaries from having a base on Greenland and expand the U.S. military presence in the territory. In his social media post, Mr. Trump said that under the deal, “no U.S. adversary can EVER have a base in Greenland, have a military presence in Greenland, or make sensitive investments in Greenland, without our express written approval.”

Officials from Denmark and Greenland did not immediately confirm that the United States had received such veto power — a U.S. demand that they had strongly opposed in closed-door negotiations in recent months. And two people close to the negotiations said Mr. Trump’s declaration of permanent control over Greenland’s security exaggerated the degree of new powers the United States would get over the territory. The U.S. military will be working with its counterparts in Denmark and Greenland under the agreement rather than asserting control over them, a U.S. military official said.

Still, the apparent deal, reached after months of high-stakes confidential talks with officials from the United States, Greenland and Denmark, could mark an off-ramp to an issue that caused widespread concern among NATO allies earlier this year.

Mr. Trump said in his post that the United States “will immediately begin the process of developing a large Military presence in the appropriate part of Greenland, of which there are many.”

He also said the United States would “FOREVER have the complete ability to do what is necessary in Greenland in order to secure and defend the security of Greenland,” even though the existing U.S. agreement with Denmark to host American military bases on Greenland does not have a time limit.

The United States first established a military presence in Greenland during World War II, and in 1951 reached an agreement with Denmark granting it broad freedom to operate military installations on the island.

The agreement would also remain in effect even if Greenland were to become an independent nation, the official said.

“This deal permanently and completely addresses our national security concerns in Greenland,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement.

Denmark still manages defense issues for Greenland, and one of the Trump administration’s goals has been to ensure that even if Greenland achieves independence, which many Greenlanders support, that would not change the access the U.S. military has today.

Mette Frederiksen, the prime minister of Denmark, said in a statement on Friday night that the agreement would strengthen “our common security in the Arctic and the North Atlantic area and is therefore also good for NATO and Europe.”

Ms. Frederiksen also said the deal “recognizes the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Kingdom and the right of the Greenlandic people to self-determination.”

Jens-Frederik Nielsen, Greenland’s prime minister, said in a statement that the agreement “recognizes Greenland’s interests and our place in international cooperation. It is to the benefit of us all.”

Imran Bayoumi, a deputy director for the GeoStrategy Initiative at the Atlantic Council, said the agreement announced on Friday offered “little in the way of new content.”

“It’s likely that Washington could have achieved many of these outcomes through negotiations with Denmark and Greenland directly, without worsening the relationship,” Mr. Bayoumi said. “Nonetheless, it gives the U.S. a critical footprint in the Arctic at a time when the region is becoming more important.”

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