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President Donald Trump and the leaders of Greenland and Denmark signed a deal Tuesday allowing the U.S. to expand its military presence in Greenland, while maintaining the sovereignty of Denmark and its autonomous island territory. "This is tremendous for Europe and for the United States and for everybody and for Greenland," Trump said at a signing ceremony with the other leaders on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City. "It's going to be incredible." The deal builds on an existing defense agreement from 1951, under which the U.S. established a presence at Pituffik Space Base. The amended deal signed Tuesday lets the U.S. expand that base and establish two new ones, and leaves the door open for additional defense areas to be built. The two new sites are at Narsarsuaq, home to just a few dozen residents after the U.S. shut its Bluie West One base in the 1950s, and Mestersvig, a military outpost used by the Sirius Patrol, a Danish special forces unit, Reuters reported. Trump had announced the deal on Truth Social on Friday, saying it would give the U.S. what he described as "permanent control over security, and all other needs" in the Danish island territory. Trump has repeatedly insisted during his second term that the U.S. must take control of Greenland for national security reasons, at times declining to rule out the possibility of using military force to acquire it. Trump's demands alarmed Greenlanders and other Europeans and opened a rift between the U.S. and NATO, of which Denmark and the U.S. are both members. Greenland has maintained it is not for sale, and the European Union earlier this year united to rebuke Trump over his push to acquire the island. Trump signaled in Friday's post that he was satisfied by the new deal, asserting that it addresses "ALL of our many U.S. concerns" and at no cost to the U.S. The agreement gives the U.S. "the complete ability to do what is necessary to defend the American continent, and also Europe and other places," Trump said during his address at the UN general assembly Tuesday morning before signing the pact. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Friday that the deal "strengthens our common security in the Arctic and the North Atlantic area and therefore is great for NATO and Europe as well." Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday pressed allies of the U.S., including Canada, Denmark, Greenland, Norway and Sweden, to raise defense spending in the Arctic region, his spokesman said. The deal signed Tuesday would bar non-NATO nations, such as China and Russia, from establishing a military footprint in Greenland. It would also prohibit sensitive investments by non-allies that may pose national security threats. Retreating sea ice has opened new shipping lanes and exposed mineral deposits across the Arctic, drawing the U.S., Russia and China to bolster their presence in the region and raising concerns international rivals.
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