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President Trump has officially ruled out using force to take Greenland away from Denmark, and it looks like we could have a new agreement on the issue with NATO. The whole matter could soon be put to bed, and many Americans still aren’t sure where it came from.
The fact of the matter is, President Trump is right to be concerned about the Arctic island, and the United States has been involved in its security since 1940, when Germany occupied Denmark.
Former U.S. diplomat Stephen Helgesen explained: “We’ve had a formalized military agreement with Denmark since 1951, and that was revised in 2004.” That means that while the U.S. can conduct military operations there, the number of troops—as well as where and how they can be deployed—is limited.
Helgesen explained that while many might think the U.S. can make any adjustments it wants to military operations, the truth is that any changes must first go through an approval process with the Danish government. That may be the key reason President Trump wants total U.S. control of Greenland.
Helgesen also pointed to the significant amount of rare-earth minerals believed to be in Greenland as a possible motivator for potential U.S. control, and says economic power will be a major factor in these negotiations.
“He can cancel a lot of programs that are climate-, energy-, and environment-related,” Helgesen said. “He can create extra tariffs on the trade and economic-relation front.”
Helgesen expects that all of this will likely end with a new agreement between the U.S. and Denmark that gives the American military more operational freedom in Greenland—and that resolution could be coming sooner rather than later. President Trump announced via Truth Social yesterday that the U.S. and NATO may have already reached a deal.