Greenland responds to Trump's alleged pre-agreement with Rutte: "No one has the mandate to make deals without us"

BarcelonaAfter weeks of maximalist threats about annexing Greenland, Donald Trump surprised everyone on Wednesday with the announcement of a "framework for a future agreement" on the Arctic island. What was surprising was that this announcement didn't come after he met with representatives from Greenland or Denmark, but rather with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, who has no jurisdiction over the Arctic island. Greenland's Prime Minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, made this clear: "No one, apart from Greenland and Denmark, has the mandate to make agreements on Greenland without us. This is not going to happen." He also emphasized that no one had informed them of the terms of the supposed preliminary agreement: "I don't know what's in the agreement regarding my country." In a press conference from Nuuk, the head of the island's autonomous government reiterated that he had no details about the supposed preliminary agreement announced by Trump. He also recalled that, in a meeting in Washington last week at the level of foreign ministersIt was agreed to create a high-level working group to find a viable solution. "We have red lines that cannot be crossed," he insisted: respect for territorial integrity, international law, sovereignty, and Greenland's right to self-determination.

Shortly after the announcement, Rutte said in an interview with Fox News that the "focus" of the conversation was on how to "ensure" that they United States, Canada, Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway "Collectively ensure that the Arctic remains secure." This Thursday he said that the top commanders of the Atlantic Alliance "will work out what is necessary." "I have no doubt that we can do it quite quickly. I certainly hope it will be this year, 2026, even early in the year," he told Reuters.

Trump said that with the preliminary agreement, the US has "everything it wanted." At the moment, there is no signed document and not many details of the preliminary agreement are known, but the few that have been published by German newspapers Der Spiegel and Welt They suggest that Washington is not limited to defense issues, but is also interested in controlling foreign investment. "The details are really being negotiated now. But essentially it's full access (...) There's no time limit," Trump also said on Fox.

According to the limited information leaked by German media, these are the main points of what Trump and Rutte reportedly negotiated, in several aspects, despite lacking the authority to do so.

Tariff withdrawal

The first point states, in general terms, that "the threat of imposing new tariffs is withdrawn." The US president already announced on Wednesday that he was withdrawing his threat against eight European countries. Furthermore, European leaders were scheduled to discuss various possibilities for responding to Washington's trade threat at an extraordinary summit on Thursday.

More military presence

Trump intends to renegotiate an agreement on troop deployment in Greenland, which would allow for an expanded US presence. The current agreement, signed in 1951 and updated in 2004, establishes that Pituffik Air Base (formerly known as Thule) "is the only defense zone in Greenland." What the US president wants is to update the pact again to include the installation of the so-called Golden Dome, one missile shield inspired by Israel's which would protect the region—Greenland, the US, and Canada—from a hypothetical threat from China and Russia. The intention is for it to be operational by the end of Trump's current term, in 2029, after an investment of approximately $175 billion. Denmark has jurisdiction over Greenland's defense, security, and foreign policy.

Investment Control

Despite Trump's assertion during his Davos speech that the island's natural resources, such as its abundant rare earth deposits, had nothing to do with his obsession with Greenland, the preliminary agreement does stipulate that the US can intervene in controlling foreign investment. This could prevent competing countries, primarily China, from securing resources on the island. However, the Greenlandic government retains full authority over foreign investment and the management of the island's natural resources.

China has attempted to establish a presence in Greenland in the past. First, it tried to win the bid to build two airports on the island, but pressure from Washington on Copenhagen led Denmark to ultimately invest in its projects. The other major attempt involved a project to exploit a vast rare earth deposit in the south of the island. However, in 2021, the Greenlandic Parliament blocked the project on environmental grounds, as it included the extraction of large quantities of uranium.

"From what I understand, the discussions between Trump and Rutte were about the common goal, that we must do more for Arctic security (...) and nothing about mineral resources or anything else," said the Greenlandic leader, adding that this will have to be part of the discussions.

Collective security

The alleged preliminary agreement also requires European NATO states to make a greater commitment to security in the Arctic region. In recent weeks, several countries have sent small contingents to the island, and Denmark and France have called for a NATO mission in Greenland, although this has not yet materialized. NATO's Chief of Staff for Europe, General Alexus Grynkewich, has said that the alliance has not yet received political guidance but is "thinking about how it would be organized." "Planning hasn't started yet, but we are prepared," he asserted. For his part, Nielsen emphasized that the Greenlandic government takes Arctic security "seriously" and affirmed that it wants to increase this security with "significant initiatives," including "a more permanent" NATO mission on the island and an "increased military presence and exercises."

Sovereignty

The preliminary agreement makes no mention of the sovereignty of the island, which is part of the Kingdom of Denmark, or its territorial integrity. On Thursday, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen explained that Prime Minister Rutte informed her that the conversation with Trump did not include negotiations on the Nordic country's sovereignty over Greenland. "NATO is fully aware of the Kingdom of Denmark's position. We can negotiate on all political matters: security, investments, the economy. But we cannot negotiate on our sovereignty. I have been informed that this was not the case either," Frederiksen stated in a press release. In this context, the Danish Prime Minister emphasized that her government is willing to discuss security in the Arctic, as "it is a NATO issue." Therefore, Frederiksen considers it "good and natural" for the US and NATO to talk, and she emphasized in the press release that Denmark "has worked for a long time to increase NATO's commitment in the Arctic."