U.S. President Donald Trump signed a trilateral security agreement with Denmark and Greenland at the United Nations in New York on Tuesday, granting Washington what he called permanent military authority over the Arctic island, according to ABC News and the Washington Times.
Trump signed the deal alongside Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly’s opening session. The agreement gives the United States what the State Department described as “the complete ability to do what it deems necessary” in Greenland for defence purposes, and restricts sensitive investment on the island to the U.S. and its allies, blocking access for adversaries such as Russia and China.
“United States will FOREVER have the complete ability to do what is necessary” in Greenland, Trump said at the signing, according to ABC News. He added that the commitment remains binding even if Greenland eventually becomes a fully independent country, a scenario Nielsen’s government has said it wants to pursue over the long term.
The deal falls short of the “complete and total control” Trump demanded earlier this year, when he repeatedly declined to rule out using military force to acquire Greenland, a stance that alarmed both Copenhagen and Nuuk. Frederiksen struck a more measured tone Tuesday, calling it “an agreement that strengthens our common security in the Arctic” while stressing it “recognizes the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Kingdom” of Denmark, the Washington Times reported. Danish and Greenlandic leaders described themselves as cautiously optimistic in comments carried by PBS and CBS News, and the agreement still requires parliamentary approval in both Denmark and Greenland before it can take effect.
The signing lands directly in Canada’s own Arctic security debate. Defence Minister David McGuinty called the broader U.S.-Greenland push “encouraging” in comments Saturday, framing it as evidence that Arctic nations and NATO allies are increasingly treating the region as a shared security responsibility rather than a unilateral U.S. project, CP24 reported. Ottawa has faced its own warnings from defence officials this year that Canada’s Arctic sovereignty claims face growing pressure from Russian and Chinese activity in the region, a concern that predates Tuesday’s signing but is now sharpened by Washington’s expanded footprint next door. Prime Minister Mark Carney is in New York for the same UN General Assembly session, where his office has said Arctic security and trade diversification are on his agenda.
Strategically, the agreement formalizes an expanded American presence around Pituffik Space Base, the U.S. military’s northernmost installation, which currently hosts about 150 troops and serves as a key radar and missile-warning post facing the Arctic approaches used by Russian submarines and, increasingly, Chinese research and shipping vessels. Fox News reported the deal caps a months-long standoff between Washington and Copenhagen that began with Trump’s early-2026 push to acquire the island outright.
No Canadian officials have yet issued a formal response to Tuesday’s signing specifically, and neither Global Affairs Canada nor the Prime Minister’s Office had published a statement as of Tuesday evening.
