US President Donald Trump has announced an agreement with Denmark and Greenland that he says gives Washington permanent control over security on the island, the Daily Mirror reported on Saturday.

“The United States of America has entered into an Agreement with The Kingdom of Denmark, and Greenland, that gives the United States permanent control over security, and all other needs, in Greenland, completely addressing ALL of our many U.S. concerns. There will be NO COST to the United States!”

Trump called it an “Infinite Life” Agreement with no end, said no US adversary could establish a base, maintain a military presence or make sensitive investments in Greenland without express written US approval, and said the US would immediately begin developing a larger military presence there.

The other two governments describe the same deal differently

Neither Copenhagen nor Nuuk uses Trump’s framing. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said the agreement “recognises the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Kingdom and the Greenlandic people’s right to self-determination,” calling it “great for NATO and Europe” and saying it “strengthens our common security in the Arctic and the North Atlantic Area,” Al Jazeera reported.

Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said it “recognises Greenland’s interests” and is “to the benefit of us all.”

Greenland remains under Danish control, CNN reported. The deal does not transfer territorial ownership.

It is not yet in force

Three facts sit awkwardly against the word “permanent”:

  1. The agreement has not been signed. It is expected to be signed during the coming week’s UN General Assembly meeting in New York.
  2. It requires ratification by both the Danish and Greenland parliaments.
  3. The official text has not been released. Trump’s announcement came ahead of it, and the claims above are his characterisation of a document no one outside the negotiations has read.

An agreement subject to two parliamentary votes is, by construction, revocable by those parliaments — which is the ordinary meaning of the opposite of permanent.

How much is actually new

Under the 1951 US–Denmark defence treaty, Washington already held broad overflight and basing rights in Greenland. CNN notes it is unclear how far the new arrangement differs from that pact.

Al Jazeera identifies the substantive change as consent: Trump says the US can now build military sites without Greenland or Denmark approving, where previously such construction required their agreement. If the text bears that out, the shift is from permission to notification — significant, but narrower than “control over security and all other needs.”

Context

The announcement follows months in which Trump had threatened to take the self-governing territory by force, drawing opposition from NATO allies including Denmark, a founding member of the alliance. CNN places the announcement against midterm elections and a domestic backlash over the ongoing Iran conflict.

A separate Al Jazeera assessment characterised the outcome as Trump having “settled for less” than his earlier demands.

A note on the platform

The Daily Mirror reports the announcement was made in a post on Trump’s X account. CNN attributes it to Truth Social and links the post there. The wording quoted is identical in both accounts.

Not reported

No outlet has seen the agreement’s text. The duration, termination provisions and dispute mechanism are unknown, as is whether “no cost to the United States” means Denmark bears costs or that none arise. It is not reported how many new US military sites are contemplated, where, or on what timetable, nor what consultation with Greenlanders the construction would involve.

Neither parliament’s likely position on ratification is reported.

Update, 20 September: NATO and Paris weigh in, and the existing US presence is put on the record

NATO has welcomed the deal. An alliance spokesperson said it would “help advance security, stability and cooperation in this vital region,” Hiru News reported, relaying BBC copy. The alliance did not address Trump’s “permanent control” characterisation.

France reads it as the opposite of what Trump described. President Emmanuel Macron said the deal helped “to reaffirm Danish sovereignty” over the island. “I simply note that Danish sovereignty is respected, that international law is respected, and that this is what we were asking for. So it’s a good thing,” he was quoted by AFP as saying. That makes a fourth government — after Copenhagen and Nuuk — describing the agreement in sovereignty-preserving terms rather than as a transfer of control.

A baseline for “a larger military presence.” The United States already keeps more than 100 military personnel permanently stationed at its Pituffik base on Greenland’s north-western tip. Trump’s stated plan to expand the US footprint has to be measured against that existing presence, which no earlier account quantified.

Why Washington wants it. Trump has said Greenland is essential to his Golden Dome missile-defence programme, intended to shield the US against Russian and Chinese missiles, and has invited European allies to take part. The island also holds vast and largely untapped rare earth reserves used in mobile phones and electric vehicles.

Signature and sequence. Frederiksen said she was “pleased that there is a prospect of a good agreement,” expected to be signed at the UN General Assembly next week — confirming the agreement remains unsigned. The joint Danish–Greenlandic statement adds that it must still pass “the necessary parliamentary procedures to enter into force.”

A sourcing caution. Hiru’s filing is BBC copy carried under its own masthead. It is not an independent verification of the Daily Mirror, CNN or Al Jazeera accounts, though the NATO and Macron reactions are new to this story.

Sources