U.S. President Says He Secured NATO Deal For Permanent U.S. Access to Greenland

Reuters

U.S. President Donald Trump holds a bilateral meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, 21 January 2026.

U.S. 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 the U.S. President backed off tariff threats against Europe 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.

President Trump's U-turn 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.

Details of any agreement were unclear and Denmark insisted its sovereignty over the island was not up for discussion. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the bloc's U.S. relations had "taken a big blow" in the past week, as EU leaders met for an emergency summit.

Greenland's Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen welcomed President Trump's 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 said, 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."

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on his return from the World Economic Forum in Davos, 
Switzerland, Trump said a new deal was being negotiated that would be "much more generous to the United States, so much more generous."

He skirted questions on sovereignty, but said: "We have to have the ability to do exactly what we want to do."

Earlier Trump told Fox Business Network the deal would essentially bring "total access" for the United States.

"There's no end, there's no time limit."

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," she said.

Speaking later ahead of the emergency summit of EU leaders, Frederiksen called for a "permanent presence of NATO in the Arctic region, including around Greenland."

Kallas said "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 said he hoped allies could put together a plan to boost Arctic security by a NATO summit in Ankara in July.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on Thursday that the UK stood ready to play its full part in ensuring security in the Arctic, a spokesperson said.

After meeting with 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 in his meeting with Trump. Specific negotiations over the Arctic island would continue between the United States, Denmark and Greenland itself, he said.

The 1951 agreement 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.

"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."

China has repeatedly said its scientific expeditions in the Arctic and commercial shipping operations in the region followed international treaties and laws, accusing the West of distorting facts and hyping up its activities as clues to military intent.

The president of the European Parliament said the European Union will likely resume work on a trade deal with the United States after Trump took back his tariff threats. The parliament decided this week to suspend work on the deal because of Trump's threats.

Source: Reuters



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