The Trump administration on Tuesday signed an agreement with the Kingdom of Denmark and the autonomous territory of Greenland at the United Nations. It affirms and expands the American military presence in Greenland while maintaining Greenlandic autonomy and Danish sovereignty. But an agreement allowing access is only the beginning. Washington must now turn it into an enduring Arctic pillar of North Atlantic defense.
President Donald Trump has been maneuvering toward a Greenland deal since 2019, during his first term. And like much of what Trump touches, Greenland has become a partisan and geopolitical flashpoint ever since. Nevertheless, the island of Greenland is critical to the strategic security of the Arctic and North Atlantic, an increasingly contested frontier with Russia. For all of Trump’s critiques of NATO, he is moving toward significantly bolstering the security of its members. Improving U.S. military infrastructure and limiting adversaries’ influence are important goals. The harder business is now to institutionalize this agreement so it establishes an enduring strategic security arrangement for the North Atlantic.
