(LifeSiteNews) — U.S. President Donald Trump has negotiated with NATO Secretary General Marc Rutte a proposed deal to acquire rights to defense areas and raw materials in Greenland, while respecting the sovereignty of Denmark over the territory.
Trump said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday that he was “seeking immediate negotiations to once again discuss the acquisition of Greenland by the United States.”
However, in a meeting with Rutte shortly thereafter, Trump agreed to a proposal that would not acquire Greenland for the U.S., but would instead grant it rights to military posts in the island, as well as access to raw materials, according to two sources familiar with the negotiations, Axios reported.
Trump himself announced on Truth Social, “We have formed the framework of a future deal with respect to Greenland and, in fact, the entire Arctic Region.” He noted that he had tossed his plans to impose tariffs on eight European countries for opposing his Greenland designs.
Trump said the proposal “gives us everything we needed,” according to Axios. The president later told reporters, “It is the ultimate long-term deal. It’s an infinite deal. It is a deal forever.”
According to sources, the plan specifically includes updating the 1951 “Greenland Defense Agreement” between the U.S. and Denmark, which gave the U.S. rights to build military bases in Greenland and create “defense areas” if NATO deemed it necessary.
It also involves “positioning ‘Golden Dome,’” a missile defense system, in Greenland, to counteract “malign outside influence” from Russia and China.
Trump clarified at Davos on Wednesday regarding Greenland, “We need it for strategic national security and international security.”
He noted that the island is “sitting undefended in a key strategic location between the United States, Russia and China. That’s right where it is, smack in the middle.”
In explaining the timing of his aspirations to acquire Greenland, Trump cited “much greater” warfare risks facing the world “because of missiles,” nuclear technology, and “weapons of warfare that I can’t even talk about.”
This was affirmed by a European diplomat who told NBC News that ramping up NATO presence in the Arctic would “send a stronger message to China and Russia” as well as build up the Golden Dome missile defense system.
Trump added Wednesday that U.S. presence in Greenland “would not be a threat to NATO,” but rather “would greatly enhance the security of the entire NATO alliance.”
He pointed out that it has been the policy of the U.S. “for hundreds of years to prevent outside threats from entering our hemisphere,” seeming to refer to the Monroe Doctrine. Geographically, Greenland is part of the North American continent and thus falls within the scope of the Western hemisphere referred to by the Monroe Doctrine.
