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US Seeks 'Major Role' in Greenland as Secret Talks Revealed
(MENAFN) Washington has been pressing for sweeping influence over Greenland during months of clandestine negotiations involving U.S., Greenlandic, and Danish officials, the New York Times reported Monday — laying bare the extent of American ambitions over the Arctic island.
U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly floated the idea of American control over Greenland, framing it as a national security imperative in the face of growing Russian and Chinese influence in the region.
According to the report, the three-way secret talks have been quietly unfolding in Washington for the past four months, driven in part by a desire to defuse Trump's threats to seize Greenland by force and shield the NATO alliance from the fallout of escalating tensions.
Yet Greenlandic leaders remain deeply uncomfortable with proposals that would dramatically expand the U.S. footprint on the island. Officials there are also bracing for the possibility that Trump could redirect pressure onto Greenland once the Iran war winds down. Some have even flagged concern that June 14 — Trump's 80th birthday — could serve as a symbolic deadline, with the U.S. president potentially seeking a geopolitical win to mark the occasion.
Among Washington's core demands is a revision of a longstanding military agreement that would allow American troops to remain on Greenlandic soil indefinitely — even in the event of independence — a prospect that sits poorly with much of the island's population. Washington is also seeking veto power over major investment deals as a mechanism to shut out Russia and China, a demand that both Greenland and Denmark have pushed back against.
Simultaneously, the U.S. is eyeing deeper cooperation on Greenland's vast reserves of oil, uranium, rare earth elements, and other critical minerals — resources that have taken on heightened strategic importance globally.
On the military front, the Pentagon is already moving forward with plans to significantly expand its presence in southern Greenland, the report noted.
Greenlandic officials, for their part, fear the cumulative weight of U.S. demands would "amount to a major imposition on their sovereignty" — a warning that underscores just how fragile the ongoing negotiations remain.
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