DAVOS, Switzerland/NUUK, Jan 22 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump said on Thursday he had secured total and permanent U.S. access to Greenland in a deal with NATO, whose head said allies would have to step up their commitment to Arctic security to ward off threats from Russia and China.
News of a framework deal came as Trump backed off tariff threats and ruled out taking Greenland by force, bringing a degree of respite in what was brewing to be the biggest rupture in transatlantic ties in decades.
But the details of any agreement were unclear and Denmark insisted its sovereignty over the island was not up for discussion, while EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said relations between the United States and the European Union had “taken a big blow” in the past week.
Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen welcomed Trump’s latest comments but said he was still in the dark on many aspects.
“I don’t know what there is in the agreement, or the deal, about my country,” he told reporters in the capital Nuuk.
“We are ready to discuss a lot of things and we are ready to negotiate a better partnership and so on. But sovereignty is a red line,” he added, when asked about reports that Trump was seeking control of areas around U.S. military bases in Greenland as part of a wider deal.
“We cannot cross the red lines. We have to respect our territorial integrity. We have to respect international law and sovereignty.”
Trump’s U-turn had triggered a rebound in European markets and a return toward record highs for Wall Street’s main indexes, but also raised questions about how much damage had already been done to transatlantic ties and business confidence.
“It’s really being negotiated now, the details of it. But essentially, it’s total access. It’s – there’s no end, there’s no time limit,” Trump told Fox Business Network in an interview from Davos, Switzerland, where he is attending the World Economic Forum.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte told Reuters in an interview in Davos that it was now up to NATO’s senior commanders to work through the details of extra security requirements.
“I have no doubt we can do this quite fast. Certainly, I would hope for 2026, I hope even early in 2026,” he said.
DENMARK SAYS SITUATION REMAINS DIFFICULT
Trump’s ambition to wrest sovereignty over Greenland from fellow NATO member Denmark has threatened to blow apart the alliance that has underpinned Western security since the end of World War Two, and reignite a trade war with Europe.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said no negotiations had been held with NATO regarding the sovereignty of Greenland, a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark.
“It is still a difficult and serious situation, but progress has also been made in the sense that we have now got things where they need to be. Namely that we can discuss how we promote common security in the Arctic region,” Frederiksen said.
Speaking later in Brussels ahead of an emergency summit of EU leaders, Frederiksen called for a “permanent presence of NATO in the Arctic region, including around Greenland.”
Kallas told reporters ahead of the summit that “disagreements that allies have between them, like Europe and America, are just benefiting our adversaries who are looking and enjoying the view.”
Finnish President Alexander Stubb, who has a good working relationship with Trump, said he hoped allies could put together a plan to boost Arctic security by a NATO summit in Ankara in July.
After meeting earlier with NATO’s Rutte, Trump said there could be a deal that satisfies his desire for a “Golden Dome” missile-defence system and access to critical minerals while blocking what he says are Russia and China’s ambitions in the Arctic.
Rutte said minerals exploitation was not discussed during his meeting with Trump, adding that specific negotiations over the Arctic island would continue between the United States, Denmark and Greenland itself.
A 1951 agreement between Washington and Copenhagen established the U.S. right to construct military bases in Greenland and move around freely in Greenlandic territory. This is still the case as long as Denmark and Greenland are informed of its actions. Washington has a base at Pituffik in northern Greenland.
“First of all, it is important to clarify that the U.S. had 17 bases during the Cold War and much greater activity. So that is already possible now under the current agreement,” said Marc Jacobsen, an associate professor at the Royal Danish Defence College.
“I think there will be concrete discussions about Golden Dome, and I think there will be concrete discussions about Russia and China not being welcome in Greenland.”
GREENLANDERS CONFUSED ABOUT PROSPECTS
However, diplomats told Reuters that European Union leaders will rethink relations with the U.S. as the Greenland episode has badly shaken confidence in the transatlantic relationship.
EU governments remain wary of another change of mind from the U.S. president, who is increasingly seen as a bully that Europe will have to stand up to.
Residents in the Greenland capital, Nuuk, were also wary.
“I think it’s all very confusing,” said pensioner Jesper Muller.
“One hour we are, well, almost at war. Next hour everything is fine and beautiful, and I think it’s very hard to imagine that you can build anything on it,” he added.
(Reporting by Susan Heavey, Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen, Mark John, Janis Laizans, Jan Strupczewski, Lili Bayer, Andrew Gray, Steve Holland, Trevor Hunnicutt, Alessandro Parodi, Benoit Van Overstraeten, Stine Jacobsen, Anna Ringstrom, Markus Wacket, Sarah Marsh, Madeline Chambers, Christian Kraemer, Janis Laizans, Writing by Matthias Williams, Keith Weir and David Brunnstrom; Editing by Sharon Singleton, Gareth Jones, Rod Nickel)
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