US military planners are pushing ahead to secure additional access to Greenland, the latest sign of Donald Trump’s sustained strategic interest in the Danish island.
The Pentagon and State Department are negotiating with Denmark for a ‘permanent presence’ at three additional bases in Greenland, General Gregory Guillot told Congress in mid-March.
Guillot heads US Northern Command, which is responsible for defending the US homeland, Canada and Mexico.
Trump has warned that ‘Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China,’ and that Moscow and Beijing’s vessels regularly transit off the coast of Greenland, as Arctic warming has opened up new routes that were frozen over.
Guillot confirmed at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing that negotiations with Denmark are moving ahead, with the US seeking ‘increased access to different bases across Greenland.’
The US is negotiating access to three Greenland bases, two of them long-abandoned by American forces. Only one outpost is currently active: Pituffik Space Base, a remote missile defense installation staffed by a few hundred troops.
The structure of the agreement is still being worked on, a White House official told the Daily Mail. ‘We are very optimistic that we’re on a good trajectory,’ the official added.
Guillot told the Senate he wants broader access to bring special forces and Navy assets permanently to the island as its geopolitical significance grows.
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