US Strikes Deal Over Greenland to End Row That Threatened NATO

(Bloomberg) -- The US, Denmark and Greenland struck a security deal that expands Washington's role on the Arctic island, ending for now a long-running diplomatic spat without ceding land to the US.

President Donald Trump said Friday that his administration had reached an agreement handing the US "permanent control over security" in Greenland. Leaders of Denmark and Greenland confirmed that an accord is expected to be signed next week at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Full details have yet to be released. Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said the pact "recognizes the sovereignty and territorial integrity" of the Danish kingdom and the Greenlandic people's right to self-determination, indicating that Trump gains no ownership or sovereignty over the island.

That marks a significant pullback from Trump's earlier push to control Greenland or make it part of the US. His repeated demands to acquire the territory had fueled distrust between Washington and its European allies, presenting one of the most serious strains on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in decades.

For Denmark and Greenland, the agreement is significant because it appears to bring an end to a nearly two-year standoff without ceding land to the US, Marc Jacobsen, associate professor at the Institute for Strategy and War Studies at the Royal Danish Defence College.

"Donald Trump needs to be seen as a winner," he said in an interview. "So a new agreement was necessary, allowing him to say: look, my pressure worked." But when it comes to Trump's ambition to acquire or politically control Greenland, "he did not get his way on this," Jacobsen said.

Trump announced the arrangement on social media on Friday, saying it would give Washington the power to block US adversaries from establishing bases or a military presence in Greenland, as well as from making sensitive investments there.

Trump also said the US would immediately begin expanding its military footprint on the island and work with Greenlanders on developing and building the facilities, all at "NO COST to the United States."

The agreement comes after a plethora of setbacks for Trump, including extended hostilities in the Middle East, no resolution of Russia's ongoing war against Ukraine and the rising cost of living for US voters ahead of the midterms.