Discussions regarding the future of Greenland have recently focused on proposals to increase NATO's presence in the Arctic, grant America sovereign claims to specific areas of Greenlandic territory, and block potentially hostile adversaries from extracting the island's minerals — specifically, restricting non-NATO countries, including Russia and China, from obtaining mining rights, The New York Times reports, writes UNN.
Details
These elements, described by eight senior Western security and diplomatic officials, as the publication writes, provide the most complete picture of the contours of a potential compromise on Greenland, which US President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday without details. His move appears to have at least temporarily defused the transatlantic crisis caused by America over the Danish territory.
Importantly, the proposals under discussion would not achieve Trump's goal of transferring ownership of all of Greenland from Denmark to the United States, according to officials. Officials warned that many details have yet to be agreed upon.
It is unclear whether these discussions will ultimately lead to an agreement on the territory. Denmark, which publicly opposes relinquishing ownership of any Greenlandic land, may not agree to the plans under consideration. Nevertheless, officials said they hoped they could simultaneously address Trump's stated concerns about Arctic security from potential threats from Russia and China, while adhering to Europe's "red line" that Greenland is not for sale.
As the publication notes, to this end, the proposals include:
- the creation of a new significant NATO mission in the Arctic. Several officials called this mission "Arctic Sentry," alluding to similar NATO missions in the Baltic Sea and Eastern Europe aimed at countering an increasingly aggressive Russia;
- updating a pact signed between Denmark and the United States in 1951. The pact grants the American military broad access to Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory, for operations, including the construction and operation of military bases. American officials said they were concerned that this access could be limited or terminated if Greenland gained independence. NATO officials have discussed expanding the 1951 pact with a new agreement that would effectively create enclaves of American land in the territory;
- such an agreement would likely be modeled on the "sovereign base areas" agreement in Cyprus, where British military bases are considered British territory. This would give the United States greater control over this land than it currently exercises over the locations of US embassies. Trump and other officials have said that territory in Greenland could prove important for his plans to create a so-called "Golden Dome" missile defense system for the United States, which could include components deployed in Greenland;
- restricting non-NATO countries, including Russia and China, from obtaining mining rights to rare earth minerals lying deep beneath Greenland's ice sheet.
All these plans, the publication writes, have been discussed within NATO over the past year as a direct response to Trump's stated ambitions.
The idea of granting the US sovereign claims to its bases in Greenland, similar to the UK's bases in Cyprus, was raised among NATO and Western military representatives on Wednesday, according to two officials, one of whom was present at these discussions. When asked for comment, General Alexus Grinkevich, NATO's commander-in-chief in Europe, stated in a brief conversation with The New York Times on Thursday that the idea was discussed as a matter for political leaders to decide, not the military.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen did not respond to a request for comment. But in a public statement on Thursday, posted on social media, she appeared to agree with some of the details discussed but rejected others, including the idea of transferring ownership of any part of Greenland, the publication writes.
"We can negotiate on everything political: security, investments, economy. But we cannot negotiate on our sovereignty," the statement said.
A senior Danish official said: "There have been no direct negotiations between Denmark and the US regarding the possibility of granting the US sovereign land plots."
When asked about the proposed agreement, Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, chairman of NATO's Military Committee from Italy, said on Thursday that officials were "at a very early stage" of creating a framework for Arctic and Greenlandic security.
NATO stated that there are currently no plans for an Arctic mission22.01.26, 16:15 • [views_2430]
General Grinkevich said: "We have not yet planned" joint Arctic operations. He added: "We have not received political guidance to start."