{"id":776404,"date":"2026-09-20T03:10:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T03:10:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/776404\/"},"modified":"2026-09-20T03:10:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T03:10:18","slug":"denmark-and-greenland-say-us-military-agreement-will-not-compromise-arctic-territorys-sovereignty-greenland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/776404\/","title":{"rendered":"Denmark and Greenland say US military agreement will not compromise Arctic territory\u2019s sovereignty | Greenland"},"content":{"rendered":"

Denmark<\/a> and Greenland<\/a> have said any agreement with the US to develop a significant military presence in the strategic Arctic territory will not compromise Greenland\u2019s sovereignty.<\/p>\n

In a statement on Saturday clarifying an announcement by Donald Trump<\/a> that an agreement had been reached to give Washington \u201cpermanent control\u201d \u2060over Greenland\u2019s security, Denmark and the semi-autonomous territory \u2060expressed hope that a deal would end friction with the US over the issue.<\/p>\n

Greenland\u2019s prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, said he was pleased with the proposed deal. \u201cThe agreement recognizes the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our kingdom and \u200bthe right of the Greenlandic people to self-determination,\u201d he said \u200bin a post<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cNext week could be a good week \u2013 for Greenland<\/a>, \u200cDenmark and the United States,\u201d Denmark\u2019s foreign minister, \u200cLars Lokke Rasmussen, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cA time of uncertainty will hopefully give way to a binding agreement that strengthens security \u200cin the Arctic and the north Atlantic, and thereby our shared security within Nato Europe<\/a> \u2013 while respecting the Danish kingdom\u2019s red lines,\u201d Rasmussen said.<\/p>\n

The US, Denmark<\/a> and Greenland said late on Friday they had reached a deal to allow the US to develop a significant military presence on Greenland, while prohibiting US adversaries from building their \u2060own bases on the island.<\/p>\n

The deal is expected to be signed during the UN general assembly next week.<\/p>\n

Key details of the agreement have not been made public, including the degree of the US military<\/a> presence in the self-governing Danish territory and whether any formal power over foreign policy and resources would be ceded to Washington.<\/p>\n

Trump said on social media that under the deal, \u201cthe United States will FOREVER have the complete ability to do what is necessary in Greenland in order to secure and defend the security of Greenland, and the United States of America\u201d.<\/p>\n

He added that the agreement would give the US \u201cpermanent control over security, and all \u200cother needs, in Greenland\u201d.<\/p>\n

The security and mineral resources of the vast northern island have been subject to Washington\u2019s foreign policy and attention since the start of the second Trump administration<\/a>, with officials citing national security, access to valuable natural resources, including rare earth minerals, and control over emerging Arctic shipping lanes.<\/p>\n

The island had a significant US military presence in the 1950s, when fears of annihilation in a US-Soviet nuclear exchange required that long-range nuclear bombers and early-warning systems be based on Greenland.<\/p>\n

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The US still maintains a reduced military presence at the Pituffik space base, formerly known as Thule, on the island to monitor for missiles.<\/p>\n

Mikkel Vedby Rasmussen, a political science professor at the University of Copenhagen, told Reuters that the Denmark-US deal \u201cis probably not the end of President Trump\u2019s ambitions for Greenland and certainly not the end of US strategic interest in the territory and its resources\u201d.<\/p>\n

Rasmussen added that if Copenhagen cedes any formal power to Washington over Greenland, which it has held for 1,000 years, it would raise questions for Greenlanders of whether \u201cthis is the beginning of replacing the colonial relationship with Denmark with a colonial relationship to the United States\u201d.<\/p>\n

US ambitions for greater sway over the Arctic island have strained relations with Nato. In January, European member nations sent military personnel to Greenland to demonstrate military readiness. Eight European allies issued a joint statement confirming their commitment to Arctic security. Negotiations followed.<\/p>\n

A Nato spokesperson \u200con Saturday said the alliance \u200bwelcomed the agreement, which would \u201chelp advance security, \u200bstability and cooperation in this vital region\u201d.<\/p>\n

Reuters contributed reporting<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Denmark and Greenland have said any agreement with the US to develop a significant military presence in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":776405,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-776404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=776404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776404\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/776405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=776404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=776404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=776404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}