The USA will build two large bases in Greenland and will expand operations on the island
Trump puffs out his chest for the agreement reached with Nuuk, which is indefinite, and says that it will benefit Europe
WashingtonThe United States, Denmark and Greenland have formalized this Tuesday the security agreement by which is handed overthe defense of the Arctic island to the United States forces. The document has been signed by the US President, Donald Trump; the Prime Minister of Denmark, Mette Frederiksen, and the Prime Minister of Greenland, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, within the framework of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. The agreement allows the United States to expand defense areas and "strengthen military operations and installations". Within the framework of the pact, Trump has announced the construction of two large military bases in Greenland "immediately".
The agreement allows the US to "modernize and expand" its activities at the Pituffik space base, establish additional defense zones and strengthen military operations and installations on the island. Thus, the North American country will be able to have bases in Narsarsuaq, in the south of the island, and in Mestersvig, in the east. The pact also allows the North American country's aircraft to fly over and land on the entire island, including territorial waters, and Washington will also be able to establish the anti-missile system promoted by the White House, the so-called Golden Dome. The parties also commit to working together against espionage in Greenland and no country that is not part of NATO will be able to have a military presence on the island.
The agreement will enter into force once it passes the parliamentary procedures in Denmark and does not have an end date, according to the document. Mind you, it can be modified if there is consensus between the parties. At the signing of the agreement in New York, Trump claimed that it is a positive pact for Europe, the United States and Greenland and that it has been achieved because the parties "really wanted it". For her part, the Danish Prime Minister pointed out that the US is "an ally and a friend" of Denmark and Europe and that the agreement is a "milestone in the long history of cooperation" with the North American country. "It is a bigger and better agreement (than the previous one)", pointed out Frederiksen, while the Prime Minister of Greenland claimed that the agreement "takes into account the people of Greenland".
The pact comes at a very convenient moment for Trump. Six weeks before the legislative elections, the tycoon can brandish the document as an international triumph amidst the unrest over the Iran war and six weeks before the legislative elections. When the US president announced the agreement last Friday he claimed that it handed to the US "permanent control over security, and all other needs of Greenland" and that the US would "soon" begin to deploy "a large military presence" on the island. Trump boasted about the conditions achieved even though the US currently already has a military base in northern Greenland, in Pituffik, and has the right to expand its military presence through NATO. One of the big questions, in fact, was whether this new agreement would represent a real change compared to the one signed in 1951.
Denmark and the government of Greenland confirmed the understanding after Trump's announcement, although they downplayed the tycoon's triumphalist tone. Both governments issued official statements over the weekend in which they asserted that the agreement "recognizes the sovereignty and integrity of the kingdom [of Denmark] and the right of Greenlanders to self-determination".
Months of pressure and military threat
Following the success of the military operation in Venezuela to capture Nicolás Maduro on January 3rd, Trump intensified threats against Greenland, and reiterated that the United States had to take control of it "the easy way or the hard way". The head of the Greenlandic government, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, implied on Friday that thanks to the agreement, Trump's annexationist aspirations regarding the island were off the table.
The fear of possible hostile action by US forces caused Denmark to send troops to the Arctic island to blow up runways if Trump decided to carry out his threat. The secret plan assumed that one NATO member considered it plausible that another ally would attack it. This does not make the pact any more reassuring, because it stems from a long campaign of pressure by the US that has made increasing military dependence on the blackmailing country the lesser evil.
The agreement comes more than half a year after the "fundamental disagreement" that the Danish and Greenlandic delegation noted during their visit to Washington. At that time, the Foreign Ministers of Denmark and Greenland ensured that the island's sovereignty was a "red line for the Kingdom of Denmark", but kept the channel open with the Americans.
The imperialist claims over the island respond to Trump's theory regarding the need to control strategic territories for the security of the US. They also respond to the growing activity of Russia and China following the new maritime routes that are opening up with the melting of the Arctic. This same year, NATO launched the Arctic Sentry initiative to strengthen surveillance and defense of the northern flank, a strategy in which allies with territory or direct interests in the region participate especially.