Photo: Collected
The United States has planned to open two new military bases in Greenland. To this end, Washington is going to sign an agreement with Denmark and Greenland on Tuesday. Under the agreement, a Cold War-era military base in south Greenland will be reopened, and another base will be built on the east coast. Reuters reported this citing three sources.
Two people familiar with the matter said the two bases will be at Narsarsuaq in the south and Mestersvig on the east coast. After the United States shut down its ‘Bluie West One’ military base in the 1950s, the population of Narsarsuaq has dwindled and now stands at a few dozen. Mestersvig, on the other hand, is currently where Denmark’s special forces unit ‘Sirius Dog Sled Patrol’ is on duty.
The new agreement between Denmark, Greenland and the United States is due to be signed at 10:30am local time (14:30 GMT) on Tuesday in New York during the session of the UN General Assembly.
The full text of the agreement has not yet been released. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the three sources said the details of the agreement will not be final until it is signed. Although Reuters contacted the governments of Denmark and Greenland for comment on the matter, there was no immediate response.
A White House spokesperson declined to comment on the details of the agreement. However, repeating an earlier statement, the spokesperson said the signing of the agreement on Tuesday will ‘ensure and secure the security of Greenland and the United States’.
Denmark says that as a result of the new agreement the security of the Arctic region will come under Nato (North Atlantic Treaty Organization). With this, the burden will not rest on the shoulders of the United States and Denmark alone.
The agreement is about to happen after months of pressure from US President Donald Trump. Trump has long been saying he wants control of Greenland in the hands of the United States. He has also several times refused to rule out the possibility of using military or economic force to take over this autonomous territory of Denmark. However, opinion polls have shown that a vast number of people in Greenland have rejected the idea.
When Trump’s threats peaked in January, a diplomatic crisis arose within Nato. Denmark and Greenland were compelled to sit in talks with Washington to ease the pressure.
During the Cold War, the United States had 17 military installations in Greenland, where the number of US troops was more than 10,000. At present the only US military installation there is Pituffik Space Base, where there are about 150 US troops.
