Negotiations between Denmark, Greenland and the United States on the future of the Danish autonomous territory are making progress but a deal has yet to be reached, Greenland’s prime minister said on Tuesday.
The mineral-rich Arctic island is coveted by US President Donald Trump, who reportedly wants to open three military bases in southern Greenland to add to the Pituffik base the US already has in the north.
“We are negotiating but we don’t have an agreement,” Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said in a speech to the Copenhagen Democracy Summit.
“We have a defence agreement with the United States where it’s already possible to have more bases if they wanted to,” Nielsen stressed during a press conference later.
“I cannot say anything concrete from the negotiations, but we are ready to do more and take more responsibility.”
A 1951 defence pact, updated in 2004, already allows Washington to ramp up troop deployments and military installations on the island as long as it gives advance warning to Denmark and Greenland.
In January, Trump backed down from his repeated threats to seize Greenland, after which Copenhagen and Nuuk held a first meeting in Washington.
Trump has repeatedly argued the US needs to control Greenland because of national security concerns, claiming that if the US does not take the Arctic island then it would fall into the hands of China or Russia.
“We have been ready from the beginning and said we are ready to do more, take more responsibility… in terms of national or international security,” Nielsen said on Tuesday.
“Our only demand is respect.”
Nielsen said Donald Trump’s special envoy for Greenland, Jeff Landry, had requested a meeting next week when he will be visiting Nuuk, but there was not yet an agenda.
“It will be arranged if we get something concrete,” Nielsen added.
Denmark has been without a government since a general election on March 24 failed to give either the left or right bloc a majority.
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