Indefinite Troop Presence, Veto Power on Foreign Investment: NYT Reveals Trump's Greenland Demands

(CNA, Washington, 18th, Comprehensive Foreign Report) With the Iran conflict still ongoing, US President Trump's obsession with Greenland seems to have become a forgotten interlude, but over the past four months, negotiators from the US, Greenland, and Denmark, which controls Greenland's foreign affairs, have been holding secret talks in Washington. The New York Times reports that these talks are aimed at providing a way to de-escalate after Trump threatened a military takeover of Greenland and to narrow a crisis that could have split the NATO alliance. But Greenland's leaders are worried about the proposals on the table, as the US seeks to play a more significant role on the Arctic island. They also fear that if the conflict with Iran subsides, Trump will once again turn his aggressive focus on Greenland. Some Greenlandic politicians say they have even circled a date on their calendars to be wary of: June 14, Trump's birthday. An investigation by The New York Times, based on interviews with officials in Washington, Copenhagen, and Greenland, found that the US is trying to amend a long-standing military arrangement to ensure US troops can remain in Greenland indefinitely, even if Greenland becomes independent. This concept is essentially a permanent clause, to which Greenlanders are very resistant. Furthermore, the US has expanded the scope of negotiations beyond military matters and wants to have a de facto veto over any major investment deals in Greenland, thereby squeezing out competitors like Russia and China. Greenlanders and Danes have strongly opposed this. The US is discussing cooperation with Greenland on natural resources. Greenland holds rich deposits of oil, uranium, rare earths, and other critical minerals, although much of it is buried deep under Greenland's ice sheet. The Pentagon is rapidly advancing its military expansion plans, recently sending a Marine Corps officer to the southern Greenland town of Narsarsuaq to inspect a World War II-era airfield, port, and potential sites for US troop basing. Greenlandic officials worry that the US demands are so stringent as to constitute a major infringement on Greenland's sovereignty. Although both Danish and US officials claim that Greenland's future depends on the island's 57,000 people, Greenlandic officials say the US demands would bind them for generations. Greenlandic parliament member Justus Hansen said that if the Americans get everything they want, there will never be any 'true independence.' He said, 'We might as well just fly our flag at half-mast.' (Translation: Li Pei-shan) 1150519