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Trump says he reached security deal on Greenland with Denmark

Josh Wingrove, Bloomberg News on

Published in News & Features

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said he reached an agreement with Denmark over Greenland that would give the U.S. “permanent control over security” for the Arctic island, but without specifying the terms of any pact.

Trump announced the deal on social media Friday, saying that the arrangement was one that addressed “ALL of our many US concerns” and would be at “NO COST to the United States.”

“At my direction, we worked with representatives of Denmark and Greenland to guarantee that the 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,” he wrote.

“This is an ‘Infinite Life’ Agreement, there is no end,” Trump added. He didn’t share the text for the deal, but the Danish government said the pact is expected to be signed on at the United Nations General Assembly.

“I am glad that we are about to make a great agreement for Greenland, the Kingdom of Denmark, and the United States,” Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in a statement Friday. “An agreement which strengthens our common security in the Arctic and the North Atlantic Area and therefore is great for NATO and Europe as well.”

The deal touted by the U.S. president appears to be a significant pullback from his previous attempts to take control of the Danish territory. That demand drew pushback from European allies and presented one of the gravest challenges to the NATO alliance since the end of World War II.

Trump had repeatedly ramped up intimidation over Greenland during his second term as U.S. president, including making veiled threats to seize the island by force and raising the prospect of higher tariffs on goods from European nations that do not fall in line.

 

That pressure campaign came to a dramatic head in January during the World Economic Forum at Davos, where Trump assailed European allies in his address. The president, though, eventually backed down following talks with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, claiming instead that he had reached the parameters of a framework agreement regarding Greenland and the Arctic region.

The U.S. had sought to rewrite its defense agreement with Denmark to remove any limits on its military presence in Greenland, even though it has scaled back its presence there for decades. A 1951 deal with Denmark said the U.S. must consult with and inform Copenhagen of its plans but even that was seen as a largely pro forma stipulation that required little more than notification.

Friday’s announcement could signal a resolution to a standoff that was almost entirely of Trump’s own making. Trump’s post suggested the U.S. was getting what it already had, and his claims were impossible to assess without a text of any revised agreement.

“Greenland will forever be part of the strategic defense area of North America and exclude any adversary from it and the surrounding area,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a separate statement.

A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the deal, said the agreement would ban any non-NATO bases on the island and adversaries from making investments that could threaten the U.S.

(Eric Martin and Se Young Lee contributed to this report.)


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