The Greenlandic Prime Minister has announced that no agreement has been reached yet as discussions between the Danish, Greenlandic, and American governments continue.
The talks between the governments of Greenland, Denmark, and the United States regarding the Danish autonomous territory coveted by the Trump administration are progressing, but no agreement has been reached, said Greenland’s Prime Minister on Tuesday, May 12. “It is difficult for me to go into the details of the discussions within the working group (Danish-Greenlandic-American, editor’s note), but we have made some progress in the right direction,” said Jens-Frederik Nielsen at the Copenhagen Democracy Summit. “We are negotiating, but we do not have an agreement,” he said.
The United States wants to open three new military bases in the southern part of the territory, according to several media outlets, in addition to the Pituffik base they already hold in northern Greenland. A defense agreement from 1951, updated in 2004, almost gives carte blanche to the American military forces to deploy installations in Greenland, provided they notify the authorities in advance.
“Our only requirement is respect”
After a beginning of the year marked by the ambitions of the American president to “take control” of the Arctic region, Copenhagen and Nuuk had a first meeting with Washington and then established a working group to discuss American concerns, including their military presence. “We have been ready from the beginning and we have said that we are ready to do more, to take on more responsibility in terms of national or international security,” Mr. Nielsen reiterated. “Our only requirement is respect,” he said.
The negotiations on the American side are led by a senior official from the State Department, Michael Needham, while Jesper Møller Sørensen, the Danish ambassador to the United States, and Jacob Isbosethsen, a Greenlandic diplomat, are leading the negotiations in Washington for Denmark and Greenland, according to the media. Five meetings have been held since January, according to the BBC.
