The United States and Denmark announced on Friday the conclusion of an agreement granting Washington permanent oversight of Greenland’s security, ending months of diplomatic tensions sparked by Donald Trump’s stated ambitions over this Arctic territory.
It was via a message posted on his social network Truth Social that Donald Trump announced the news: the United States has reached an agreement with the Kingdom of Denmark and Greenland that grants them, in his own words, “permanent control over the security” of the island. The American president specified that no adversary of the United States could henceforth “ever” establish a base on the territory, deploy a military presence there, or make sensitive investments “without explicit written approval” from Washington.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen hailed “an excellent agreement for Greenland, the Kingdom of Denmark, and the United States,” emphasizing that the text will recognize “the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the kingdom as well as the right of the Greenlandic people to self-determination.” She also highlighted the benefits of the agreement for NATO and Europe, presenting it as a strengthening of collective security in the Arctic and the North Atlantic. Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen agreed, stating that the agreement is “to the advantage of all of us” and that it “will guarantee and strengthen the island’s security.”
The formal signing of the text is expected next week, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Since his return to the White House in January 2025, Trump had continuously demanded control over Greenland, citing “national security” imperatives and raising the specter of Chinese or Russian takeover of this strategic territory. These statements caused a shockwave in Europe, prompting the European Union to accelerate its own commitments in the region. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen visited the island earlier this month to announce a €200 million partnership, and the Commission has proposed allocating an additional €530 million to Greenland under its 2028-2034 budget, citing “the growing geostrategic importance of the territory in the Arctic.”
Militarily, the American presence in Greenland today is limited to the Pituffik space base, the northernmost installation of the United States Department of Defense, dedicated to space surveillance and missile defense. A modest legacy compared to the seventeen installations and over ten thousand soldiers Washington maintained there at the height of the Cold War.
