President Trump said on Friday that his administration had reached a deal with Denmark and Greenland giving the United States “permanent control over security, and all other needs,” in the semi-autonomous Danish territory.
The full contours of what Mr. Trump was describing were not immediately clear, but shortly after Mr. Trump’s announcement, leaders of Greenland and Denmark issued statements indicating they expected an agreement to be signed soon.
Earlier in his term, Mr. Trump had made grandiose claims about taking over Greenland, causing a rupture in the Western alliance, only to back away. But more recently, he had dispatched aides for confidential talks with officials from Denmark and Greenland on a much larger role on the Arctic island instead.
In a social media post on Friday, 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.”
Mr. Trump said in his post that the United States “will begin the process of developing a large Military presence in the appropriate part of Greenland, of which there are many.”
Mr. Trump also said the U.S. would “FOREVER have the complete ability to do what is necessary in Greenland in order to secure and defend the security of Greenland.” But the existing U.S. agreement with Denmark to host American military bases on Greenland did not have a time limit.
America first established a military presence in Greenland during World War II, and in 1951 reached an agreement with Denmark granting the U.S. broad freedom to operate military installations on the island. The agreement did not include an expiration date.
The 1951 pact allowed for access to the forces of NATO nations. But it did not explicitly restrict the presence of the presence of “adversary” nations, as Mr. Trump claimed on Friday that the new agreement would do.
Mr. Trump has long pushed to acquire Greenland, but leaders in both Denmark and Greenland have rejected the idea. Earlier this year, Denmark’s foreign minister, Lars Lokke Rasmussen, said U.S. ownership of Greenland remained a red line for Denmark. But he also said the two sides had agreed to launch a “high-level working group to explore a common way forward.”
Negotiators from the U.S., Greenland and Denmark, held confidential talks in Washington about Greenland’s future earlier this year. In those talks, the United States discussed cooperation with Greenland on natural resources and expanding the U.S. military presence on the territory. According to officials close to the talks, American negotiators had been insisting on veto power over any major investment deals in Greenland to box out competitors like Russia and China.
Michael Crowley and Jeffrey Gettleman contributed reporting from Washington.
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