US pushes for three new Greenland bases, with ‘sovereign territory’ status on the table
The United States is in advanced, closely-held talks with Denmark and Greenland to open three new military bases in southern Greenland, with U.S. officials floating an arrangement that would designate the installations as U.S. sovereign territory, the BBC reports.
The proposed bases would focus on maritime surveillance of Russian and Chinese activity in the GIUK Gap, the strategic chokepoint between Greenland, Iceland and the U.K., a mission the lone existing U.S. installation at Pituffik Space Base, in the northwest, is not configured to perform. One site would likely be Narsarsuaq, the former Bluie West One airfield. Others would reuse existing Greenlandic airfields and ports.
Senior State Department official Michael Needham is leading the American side, which has met at least five times since mid-January with Denmark’s ambassador in Washington, Jesper Møller Sørensen and Greenland’s senior representative Jacob Isbosethsen. Trump’s special envoy to Greenland, Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry, has not attended any of the sessions.
Both governments have acknowledged the diplomatic track without elaborating on its substance. Denmark’s foreign ministry described “an ongoing diplomatic track with the United States,” while the White House said it was “very optimistic” about where the talks were headed.
Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen, speaking Tuesday at the Copenhagen Democracy Summit, said the conversations had “taken some steps in the right direction”, while drawing a firm line on the underlying question. “We are not to be taken,” he said. “We are not for sale.”
The most consequential element is the proposed sovereignty designation, which would mark a departure from the 1951 U.S.-Denmark Defence Agreement under which Washington currently operates in Greenland with Danish consent. Copenhagen has historically never refused a U.S. expansion request under that treaty, but a formal sovereignty carve-out is likely to draw close scrutiny in the Folketing and in Nuuk.
