The US president stated that a new agreement will offer Washington “all the military access we desire”
US President Donald Trump stated that the Greenland deal currently being negotiated by his administration and NATO would give American forces “full access” to the territory at no cost to Washington.
Earlier this month, Trump promised to take Greenland from Denmark “the easy way” or “the difficult way.” During a speech at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos on Wednesday, he referred to the island as “ours,” and urged Copenhagen to start “immediate negotiations” to transfer it to the US.
Denmark declined, and Trump adopted a more moderate stance after a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte later that evening. He said that he would no longer impose tariffs on European nations opposing his acquisition plans, and that he and Rutte had come up with a deal that “everyone is very satisfied with.”
“It is currently being negotiated,” he told Fox News on Thursday.
“I believe it will turn out to be something,” he said. “I won’t have to pay anything. We will have all the military access we want. We will be able to place what we need on Greenland.”
Trump said that Greenland is crucial for his planned ‘Golden Dome’ missile defense system, a project that the Congressional Budget Office estimates will cost the US $831 billion. Trump claimed on Thursday that the system – which is supposed to use space – based interceptors – will be “Israel times probably 100.”
Neither Rutte nor Trump has commented on whether their deal would affect Danish sovereignty. Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said he had spoken with Rutte but refused to provide details.
Greenland already has around 150 US troops at Pituffik Space Base, formerly known as Thule Air Base. Under the 1951 Greenland Defense Agreement, American forces can move freely across the territory, and there is no upper limit set on the number of US troops that can be deployed there.
Trump has claimed that only US ownership can safeguard Greenland from Russia and China, arguing that both would lay claim to the island if the US didn’t take it first. However, Denmark maintains that there is no external threat to Greenland “at present.” Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that Greenland is of no concern to Moscow, and that the US and Denmark would “sort it out among themselves.”