The US plans to open two Arctic military sites under a new deal with Denmark and Greenland aimed at keeping Russia and China out.
A tiny settlement in southern Greenland, now home to only a few dozen people, could soon find itself back on the front line of a global power struggle.
The United States plans to reopen a military base at Narsarsuaq, decades after abandoning the Cold War installation known as Bluie West One, and establish a second presence at Mestersvig on Greenland’s remote east coast.
The move would mark America’s biggest military expansion on the Arctic island since the Cold War, when more than 10,000 US personnel were stationed across 17 installations there.
The plans form part of a new security agreement expected to be signed Tuesday by the United States, Denmark and Greenland during the UN General Assembly in New York, according to three people familiar with the negotiations who spoke to Reuters.
The agreement’s final text has not yet been released, and its details could still change before it is signed.
Two remote locations, one major message
Narsarsuaq may be small today, but its history is anything but ordinary.
The United States built an airbase there during World War II, later using it as part of its Cold War network before withdrawing in the 1950s. Since then, the local population has dwindled to only a few dozen residents.
Mestersvig is even more remote. The military outpost is currently used by the Sirius Dog Sled Patrol, an elite Danish naval unit that travels across Greenland’s vast frozen wilderness by dog sled.
Bringing an American military presence to both sites would send a clear message: Washington wants to strengthen its reach across the Arctic and prevent Russia or China from gaining a strategic foothold.
Greenland sits between the Arctic and North America, making it important for monitoring missiles, aircraft, and shipping routes. It also holds significant mineral and energy resources, adding an economic dimension to the growing competition around it.
Greenland is not becoming American
The deal follows months of tension caused by US President Donald Trump’s repeated insistence that America should control Greenland. At times, he refused to rule out military or economic pressure to acquire the semi-autonomous Danish territory.
Those statements triggered a diplomatic crisis between NATO allies and pushed Denmark and Greenland into negotiations with Washington.
The new agreement appears to offer the US much of the military access it wants without transferring ownership of the island.
Trump has claimed it gives Washington permanent control over Greenland’s security needs. Denmark and Greenland, however, say their sovereignty and Greenlanders’ right to decide their own future will remain intact.
Denmark also says Arctic security will be placed under NATO’s wider oversight, rather than being treated simply as an arrangement between Copenhagen and Washington.
It remains unclear whether the deal will amend the 1951 defense agreement that currently governs America’s military presence in Greenland or create a separate framework.
From 17 bases to one, and now three
Today, America’s only permanent military installation in Greenland is Pituffik Space Base in the northwest, where roughly 150 US personnel are stationed.
The addition of Narsarsuaq and Mestersvig would bring the number of American military locations on the island to three, still far below Cold War levels, but a significant change after decades of reduced activity.
For people in Cyprus, the basic logic may sound familiar: when a small island occupies an important position on the map, larger powers rarely view it as merely a quiet place where people live.
Greenland may have only around 57,000 residents, but its location has once again turned it into some of the world’s most valuable strategic real estate.
The Cold War bases may have faded into history, but the rivalry that built them is beginning to look very current again.
*Source: Reuters
