Trump hails Greenland as second to none for US and European security

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Trump hails Greenland as 'second to none' for security of US euronews.com

Trump’s Greenland deal expands permanent US military presence in Arctic foxnews.com

Donald Trump speaking at a podium during a reception in Davos. foxnews.com

The Ilulissat Icefjord, also known as Sermeq Kujalleq, is draining approximately 7% of Greenland's ice sheet in Ilulissat, Greenland, on June 25, 2024. foxnews.com

Protesters hold Greenlandic flags during demonstration outside U.S. Consulate. foxnews.com

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A protest in front of the U.S. consulate in Nuuk, Greenland, in January 2026. newsweek.com

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Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that "massive oil, gas and mineral exploration is getting ready to begin in our new and beautiful Greenland," hailing the Arctic island as "second to none" for the defence of both the United States and Europe. The Truth Social post gave no details on when or how the exploration would begin, or on what American involvement would look like.

The announcement follows a security agreement signed in September with Denmark and Greenland on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, reached after months of threats to take the territory by force. The deal permits the United States to modernise and enlarge Pituffik Space Base and to open new defence areas at Narsarsuaq and Mestersvig. American forces gain "free access to and movement between" defence areas by land, air and sea, including territorial waters, and American aircraft may fly over and land anywhere on the island. The United States already held extensive military rights under a 1951 defence agreement, and operated 17 facilities with more than 10,000 troops on Greenland at the height of the Cold War. Today it runs one base.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen welcomed the deal as strengthening common security in the Arctic and the North Atlantic, and Greenland's Premier Jens-Frederik Nielsen called it "to the benefit of us all." Demonstrators holding Greenlandic flags had protested outside the American consulate in Nuuk in January as the acquisition push continued. The agreement did not grant the United States sovereignty over Greenland — but it does restrict military installations by non-NATO countries and establishes safeguards against "potentially threatening foreign investments in sensitive sectors, including natural resources and critical infrastructure."

Greenland lies on the shortest missile route between Russia and the United States and is a strategic location for the planned Golden Dome defence shield; Trump wrote that any future attack on America "will have to come across Greenland, where our Defence will routinely knock down drones, missiles, or any other form of weapon not yet even conceived." The island holds untapped rare earth deposits, and melting polar ice is opening new Arctic shipping routes. But commercially recoverable oil reserves have never been established, and in August, reports of an American oil company's preparatory operations in a remote region of eastern Greenland left locals and authorities uneasy.

The ownership language arrives the same week Washington eased sanctions on Russian diesel ahead of the US midterms, after years of pressing European allies to give up Russian hydrocarbons at their own expense. Copenhagen retains authority over Greenland's foreign, defence and security policy, while the island's self-government controls its mineral resources. Greenland stopped issuing new oil and gas exploration licences in 2021, citing environmental and climate concerns — a moratorium the president's post did not mention.