September 19 2026 - 4:00pm
The United States and Denmark appear to have struck a mutually beneficial agreement regarding the latter’s Greenland territory. Greenland had become a major point of friction between the US, Denmark, and the two countries’ Nato allies following President Donald Trump’s return to office. Trump had even threatened the unlawful use of force to take American ownership of the world’s largest island. There was heavy suspicion that the US President wanted ownership of Greenland not for reasons of security, but rather to access its rich energy and fisheries resources.
Instead, the agreement announced on Friday rightly focuses on US military access to Greenland. In a statement on his TruthSocial social media platform, Trump claimed that the US would now gain “permanent control over security, and all other needs, in Greenland, completely addressing ALL of our many U.S. concerns. There will be NO COST to the United States!” He added that the agreement would prevent hostile nations — Russia and China — from accessing the Danish territory. He added: “We will immediately begin the process of developing a large Military presence in the appropriate part of Greenland, of which there are many.”
Greenland and Denmark have also published statements supporting the deal. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said that it “strengthens our common security in the Arctic and the North Atlantic Area… [and] recognizes the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Kingdom and the Greenlandic people’s right to self-determination.”
With the political spin decoded, it strongly appears that Trump has abandoned his always-foolish demand that Greenland be brought under American sovereign control. That demand was incompatible with America’s moral obligation to support the will of free peoples, and its political obligation to Nato allies. Denmark has proven itself an especially reliable American ally over the past two decades. While this concord could have been reached with far less acrimony earlier in the Trump administration (existing agreements with Denmark already grant the US military extensive access to Greenland), it still represents a positive development.
There is no question, after all, that Russia and China pose significant and growing threats in the Arctic High North. These nations seek to exploit the region’s natural resources and expand their Arctic military footprints. They want to be able to dominate new, global-warming-enabled trade routes and advance their military threats to Canada, Iceland and the United States. These ambitions are intolerable from an American perspective, and Friday’s deal helps address these concerns by facilitating a rapid, wide-ranging US military buildup. That presence will boost the US military’s freedom of action and increase Nato deterrence credibility. Crucially, it will also provide an American companion to Danish claims over Arctic resources in the face of Russian bullying.
Of course, it would have been far better had Trump pursued this reasonable framework back in January 2025. Failing that, however, this agreement provides a mutually beneficial resolution to a contentious issue.
