U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to meet the leaders of Denmark and Greenland on Tuesday to sign an agreement that would expand the U.S. military presence on the strategically located island and potentially ease a long-running dispute over its status.
Trump is scheduled to meet Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen at the United Nations General Assembly in New York for the trilateral signing ceremony.
Greenland, a former Danish colony and now a semi-autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark, lies between the Arctic and North America and is believed to possess substantial energy and mineral resources.
The agreement is expected to allow the United States to increase its military presence on the island, according to three people familiar with the matter.
The United States already operates Pituffik Space Base. Under the proposed arrangement, two additional military sites could be opened at Narsarsuaq, a former Cold War airbase, and Mestersvig, which is currently used by Denmark’s Sirius Dog Sled Patrol.
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The planned expansion follows a diplomatic crisis triggered in January after Trump declined to rule out military or economic measures to acquire Greenland. The development prompted Denmark and Greenland to enter intensive negotiations.
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said the agreement would place responsibility for Arctic security under NATO’s collective framework rather than leaving it solely to Washington and Copenhagen.
Trump said on Friday that the agreement would give the United States “permanent control over security, and all other needs, in Greenland”.
Denmark has not responded directly to that assertion but has said the agreement respects the kingdom’s sovereignty and Greenland’s right to self-determination.
The full text of the agreement has not been released ahead of Tuesday’s signing, leaving uncertainty over whether it will amend the 1951 defence treaty that provides the legal basis for the U.S. military presence in Greenland or establish a separate framework.
The agreement represents a shift from Trump’s earlier push to acquire Greenland outright.
However, it would significantly expand U.S. military infrastructure on the island and mark the first major increase in its military presence there since the Cold War, when the United States maintained 17 installations and more than 10,000 personnel.
