Trump signs security deal with Greenland, Denmark

Sept. 22 (UPI) — U.S. President Donald Trump signed a security deal with the leaders of Greenland and Denmark on Tuesday, saying the United States will establish two “very major” new military bases on the island.

“We will immediately begin the process of developing a large military presence in the appropriate locations,” Trump said Tuesday during a speech at the United Nations in New York City. “We’ll be building two very major military bases.”

The island remains Danish territory, and the new agreement gives the United States powers related to defense there. The text of the agreement, which was released by the Danish government, shows it has no end date and that it can be amended only by mutual consent, The Washington Post reported.

The deal comes after months of tension between the United States and Denmark as Trump threatened to seize the island — a semi-autonomous Danish terrority — by military means. On Tuesday, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen, who also signed the deal, lauded the agreement.

Frederiksen said the agreement is “bigger and better” than a 1951 treaty between the United States and Denmark, The Post reported. That agreement allowed the United States to first open military bases on the island. Nielsen said the new deal focuses on the “people of Greenland, our rights, our livelihoods and the development of our country.”

Meanwhile, the U.S. part of the deal includes the establishment of a “Golden Dome defense system” and says the United States will reestablish a military base in Narsarsuaq in southern Greenland and set up a new base in Mestersvig, on the eastern side of the island.

As of now, there is one U.S. base on Greenland: Pituffik Space Base on the northwest coast. The United States will be “allowed to modernize and expand its activities” at the base as part of the agreement, The Hill reported.

The security agreement bars China and Russia from establishing a military presence on Greenland.

U.S. officials said the agreement will not need to be approved by Congress. However, parliaments in Greenland and Denmark must ratify the deal before it can become law.