President Donald Trump has reached a sweeping agreement with Denmark and Greenland that grants the United States permanent military rights on the strategically located Arctic island, according to a senior U.S. official who outlined the deal exclusively to Fox News Digital.
The arrangement gives the U.S. permanent access, basing, and overflight rights in Greenland, along with the ability to establish additional military installations as needed. It also bars China, Russia, and other non-NATO countries from setting up military bases or maintaining troops on the island, and restricts adversaries from investing in sensitive sectors that could threaten U.S. national security.
A Historic Win for U.S. Security
Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the agreement as a major achievement. “This historic deal is a huge win for the United States and the American people,” Rubio told Fox News Digital. “Thanks to President Trump’s vision and leadership, this historic agreement permanently guarantees U.S. security interests in the Arctic at zero cost to the U.S. taxpayer.”
Rubio added that Greenland “will forever be part of the strategic defense area of North America and exclude any adversary from it and the surrounding area,” and said the deal “permanently and completely addresses our national security concerns in Greenland.”
No Expiration, No Sovereignty Transfer
The new agreement has no expiration date, though it stops short of transferring sovereignty over Greenland to the United States. Administration officials nonetheless view its permanence as central to addressing the security concerns that originally drove Trump’s push to acquire the territory.
“The difference here is we’re not spending any money for the right” to expand the U.S. military presence, the senior official explained. The deal is also designed to remain in effect even if Greenland eventually becomes an independent country, the official added.
Trump celebrated the agreement in a post on Truth Social on Friday. “For over 100 years, Presidents have known the strategic importance of Greenland, but NONE of them were able to do anything about it. I am proud to be the President that permanently and conclusively addressed this very important situation. This is an ‘Infinite Life’ Agreement, there is no end!” he wrote.
Fox News Digital reached out to the governments of Greenland and Denmark for comment.
Expanding a Longstanding Defense Relationship
The deal significantly expands on the longstanding U.S. defense relationship with Greenland. The U.S. already operates Pituffik Space Base and has maintained military access to the island under a defense agreement dating back to 1951.
Under the new agreement, Denmark and Greenland would not have approval authority over additional U.S. military installations. The U.S. would consult with them but would have the right to build new installations when it determines they are necessary without needing their buy-in, according to the senior official.
The administration believes an expanded U.S. military footprint in Greenland could eventually play a role in Trump’s planned Golden Dome missile defense system.
“We will immediately begin the process of developing a large Military presence in the appropriate part of Greenland, of which there are many. We will work with the people of Greenland in its development and construction,” Trump added.
Restrictions on Adversary Investment
The agreement only allows the U.S. and its allies to make “sensitive investments” on the island, such as telecommunications infrastructure, undersea cables, ports, and critical minerals.
The administration is seeking to prevent Greenland from becoming another version of what it sees as the strategic vulnerability that developed around the Panama Canal, where Chinese commercial interests have fueled U.S. concerns that ostensibly civilian infrastructure could have national security implications.
“We’re never going to face that in Greenland as a result of this,” the official told Fox News Digital.
Quiet Negotiations That Satisfied All Sides
Officials from both Greenland and Denmark, which holds sovereignty over the self-governing island territory, initially scoffed at Trump’s insistence that the U.S. must “own” Greenland. But months of negotiations between Rubio, White House adviser Stephen Miller, and officials at the State Department and National Security Council led to a deal that satisfied all sides, a second official told Fox News Digital.
Representatives from all three countries went through “various rounds of quiet negotiations that never leaked and never got out there” starting in February, as Denmark and Greenland came to see the agreement as serving their own security interests.
“They recognize at the end of the day that they have a national security concern here as well,” Rubio said. “Denmark and Greenland understand that they don’t have the financial means necessary to defend Greenland if it were to come under attack or be threatened. The United States has the power to do that.”
