President Donald Trump will meet the leaders of Denmark and Greenland at the United Nations on Tuesday to sign an agreement expanding the U.S. military presence in Greenland while Danish officials emphasize that sovereignty and Greenlandic self-determination remain unchanged.

By yourNEWS Media Newsroom.

President Donald Trump is set to sign a trilateral Arctic security agreement with Denmark and Greenland on Tuesday that will expand the U.S. military presence on the strategically important island after months of tensions over Washington’s role there.

Trump is scheduled to meet Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen at the United Nations General Assembly in New York for a signing ceremony expected at approximately 10:30 a.m. Eastern time.

Denmark’s prime minister’s office confirmed that all three leaders will sign the agreement, which is intended to strengthen security across Greenland, the Arctic and the North Atlantic. The pact will still have to complete required national parliamentary procedures before taking effect.

Trump has characterized the agreement in broader terms, saying it gives Washington a permanent security role in Greenland.

“At my direction, we worked with representatives of Denmark and Greenland to guarantee that the United States will FOREVER have the complete ability to do what is necessary in Greenland in order to secure and defend the security of Greenland, and the United States of America,” Trump wrote Friday.

Trump said the arrangement would provide the United States with “permanent control over security” in Greenland.

Danish and Greenlandic officials have described the agreement differently, emphasizing that the deal expands security cooperation without transferring sovereignty to the United States.

Frederiksen said the agreement “recognizes the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Kingdom and the Greenlandic people’s right to self-determination.”

Nielsen similarly said the pact recognizes Greenland’s interests while strengthening the security of Greenland, Denmark, the United States and their Western allies.

The agreement is expected to significantly expand America’s military footprint in Greenland while moving Arctic security more firmly into NATO’s broader defense framework.

Reuters reported that the United States plans to establish military operations at two additional Greenland locations in addition to its existing presence at Pituffik Space Base. One would involve Narsarsuaq, a former American military installation in southern Greenland, while the other would be established at Mestersvig on the island’s east coast.

The full agreement had not been publicly released before Tuesday’s scheduled signing, leaving some of its legal details unresolved.

It remains unclear whether the arrangement formally amends the longstanding 1951 defense agreement governing the U.S. military presence in Greenland or establishes a separate security framework.

The original defense agreement was signed during the early years of the Cold War and has served for decades as the legal foundation for American military operations on the island.

It was amended in 2004 to recognize Greenland’s expanded political autonomy and to establish additional consultation requirements governing significant changes to American military facilities or operations. The 2004 agreement identified what was then Thule Air Base, now Pituffik Space Base, as the sole U.S. defense area in Greenland while providing a mechanism for establishing additional defense areas.

The new agreement represents the largest prospective expansion of American military infrastructure in Greenland since the Cold War.

The United States once operated 17 installations across Greenland and maintained more than 10,000 personnel there as Washington sought to monitor and deter the Soviet Union.

Most of that presence disappeared during military drawdowns in the 1990s and 2000s. Today, Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland is the primary permanent U.S. military installation on the island.

Greenland’s geography gives it outsized strategic importance.

Located between North America and Europe, the island sits near increasingly important Arctic air and sea routes and occupies a critical position for missile warning, space surveillance and the defense of the North Atlantic.

It also contains deposits of critical minerals and rare earth elements that have attracted growing international attention.

Greenland has a population of roughly 57,000 despite covering an area approximately three times the size of Texas. It became self-governing in 2009 while remaining part of the Kingdom of Denmark, with Copenhagen retaining responsibility for areas including defense and foreign policy.

Those strategic considerations have driven Trump’s focus on the territory since he returned to the White House in January 2025.

Trump repeatedly argued that the United States needed greater control over Greenland for national-security reasons and said Washington should acquire the island before Russia or China established a stronger foothold in the Arctic.

His comments created a prolonged diplomatic confrontation with Denmark and Greenland, whose leaders repeatedly said the territory was not for sale.

At the NATO summit in Ankara in July, Trump again said Greenland should be controlled by the United States rather than Denmark and criticized Copenhagen’s handling of security on the island.

Frederiksen responded the following day by rejecting any transfer of sovereignty.

“We are ready to defend every inch of NATO, including our own territory. … Of course, we will defend the kingdom of Denmark,” Frederiksen said.

She reiterated that Greenland was “not for sale.”

The dispute had already moved beyond rhetoric earlier in the year.

In January, Trump threatened tariffs against eight European countries that opposed his attempt to acquire Greenland.

The proposed tariffs covered imports from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Finland and the United Kingdom. Trump said a 10% tariff would take effect unless progress was made toward allowing the United States to purchase the island, with the rate potentially rising later.

Those threats intensified concerns within NATO because Denmark and the United States are both founding members of the alliance.

The emerging agreement appears to replace the territorial dispute with an expanded security arrangement that gives Washington broader military access without transferring Greenland to American sovereignty.

Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said Saturday that the agreement could bring an end to what he described as a period of uncertainty.

“A time of uncertainty will hopefully give way to a binding agreement that strengthens security in the Arctic and the North Atlantic—and thereby our shared security within NATO and Europe—while respecting the Kingdom’s red lines,” Rasmussen said.

Denmark has also stressed that security in the Arctic should remain a NATO responsibility rather than an exclusively American one.

Rasmussen said the agreement places greater emphasis on collective defense through the alliance, while Denmark and Greenland retain their existing constitutional relationship.

That distinction is central to how the three governments are presenting the deal.

Trump says Washington will have the permanent ability to take whatever security steps are necessary in Greenland.

Denmark, meanwhile, says the agreement recognizes the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Danish kingdom, while Greenland’s government says it preserves the Greenlandic people’s right to determine their own political future.

The pact is also expected to restrict strategic access by countries outside NATO.

Reuters reported that the agreement is intended to prevent adversarial governments from establishing military bases or making certain sensitive investments in Greenland while guaranteeing long-term U.S. military access.

That provision reflects longstanding U.S. concerns about Chinese investment in Arctic infrastructure and Russia’s extensive military buildup across its own Arctic territory.

The Trump administration has repeatedly argued that Greenland’s location is becoming more important as melting sea ice creates additional opportunities for Arctic shipping and military operations.

Denmark has responded by increasing its own defense commitments in Greenland, including additional surveillance and military capabilities, but those measures had not satisfied the administration during the earlier dispute.

Tuesday’s agreement represents a different approach.

Rather than changing Greenland’s national status, the United States is set to secure a larger and potentially permanent military role through an agreement negotiated with both Copenhagen and Nuuk.

The Danish government said the deal strengthens security “in the Arctic and the North Atlantic Area” and benefits NATO and Europe while preserving existing sovereignty.

Trump has presented the same agreement as ensuring that Washington will forever retain the ability to protect Greenland and the United States.

The precise extent of that authority will become clearer once the text is released and the agreement proceeds through the necessary parliamentary approval process.

For now, the signing marks a significant shift from the months-long confrontation over whether the United States might acquire Greenland.

Instead, Washington is preparing to expand its military footprint under an agreement endorsed by Denmark and Greenland — giving the United States a larger strategic role in the Arctic while leaving the island’s sovereignty formally unchanged.

Original article