Trump says deal with Denmark gives US ‘permanent control’ over Greenland

United States President Donald Trump has said Washington has entered into an agreement with Denmark and Greenland that gives the US “permanent control over security and all other needs”.

In a post on his Truth Social platform on Friday, Trump said, “At my direction, we worked with representatives of Denmark and Greenland to guarantee that the US will FOREVER have the complete ability to do what is necessary in Greenland.”

He added that US adversaries will be barred from establishing military bases or stationing personnel in Greenland unless they receive written authorisation from the US.

Trump, who had previously threatened to annex the Arctic island for what he said were national security reasons, announced that plans will begin immediately to build a significant US military footprint in suitable areas across Greenland, adding that there are numerous potential locations. He called the development “a dream come true for the United States of America”.

The US already holds nearly total overflight and basing rights in Greenland under a 1951 treaty, but Trump’s announcement suggests he was nonetheless pleased with the outcome of the negotiations and might not revive his territorial claims, at least in the near future.

While he offered few specifics on the upcoming rollout beyond mentioning the island’s existing Space Force base in the remote northwest, his setup hints at larger strategic ambitions.

Signing expected next week

Denmark and Greenland also released a joint statement on Friday indicating that a pact with the US is set to be signed during next week’s United Nations General Assembly session.

The statement added that the deal remains subject to parliamentary approval in Nuuk and Copenhagen.

Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said the agreement “recognises the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the kingdom and the right of the Greenlandic people to self-determination”.

On Saturday, Denmark’s Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said on social media that “a long period of uncertainty will hopefully be replaced by a binding agreement that strengthens security in the Arctic and North Atlantic and thereby also our shared security in NATO and Europe”.

Also on Saturday, NATO welcomed the announcement, with its spokesperson saying “the agreement will help advance security, stability and cooperation in this vital region”.

Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said the deal with the US “strengthens” the territory’s security.

In a separate statement, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the deal “permanently and completely” addressed Washington’s national security concerns with respect to the island.

“Greenland will forever be part of the strategic defence area of North America and exclude any adversary from it and the surrounding area,” Rubio wrote.

Observers say the agreement could offer a path out of prolonged diplomatic tension.

Mikkel Olesen, a senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies, said that while full details remain undisclosed, the deal provides an opening to end a standoff that has dragged on for more than a year and a half.

“It also has to do with excluding Russia and China from Greenland, excluding them, barring them from having military bases,” Olesen said.

“This is a stipulation that I think the Danes and the Greenlanders will have less trouble with because the Danes and the Greenlanders have no wish for Russia or China to have bases in Greenland.

“So, there are a lot of things we don’t know,” Olesen added. “But overall, I think the positive thing to zoom in on here is that it has the potential to end the crisis, and also, I see that, without the loss of sovereignty for Denmark and Greenland.”

Reporting from Washington, DC, Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher noted that Trump views the agreement as a key strategic victory.

“It’s thought that Donald Trump will look to expand the number of US bases in Greenland. He sees it as an important step in his Golden Dome missile programme. He wanted to place interceptors and also trackers there,” he said.

“What is interesting is that all the time Donald Trump has been talking about what he wanted to do with Greenland and take over Greenland, he talked a lot about rare earth minerals,” added Fisher.

“This isn’t mentioned in either the statement from the Danish and the Greenlandic side, or indeed from Donald Trump, on his social media platform.”

Richard Weitz, a senior fellow at the NATO Defense College, said Trump “settled for less” with the Denmark-Greenland pact.

“This seems to be a pattern. He wanted to annex Canada and the Panama Canal, and raised the idea of annexing Venezuela and Greenland as well. But in each case, there was local opposition, so he’s backed down and settled for less, and in this case, he got pretty much everything he wanted, except formal annexation,” Weitz told Al Jazeera.

“The most immediate and very great contribution is this diffuses perhaps the most severe sources of internal tension between the alliance,” said Weitz, adding that resolving this issue allows NATO allies to focus on “common threats”, the most paramount one being Russia’s war on Ukraine.