Five meetings, at least, since mid-January. That is how often US and Danish negotiators have sat down to talk about putting more American troops in Greenland, according to multiple officials who spoke to the BBC about talks that have stayed largely out of view.
The US wants three new bases in the south of the territory, which is a semi-autonomous part of Denmark. One would probably go in Narsarsuaq, on the site of a former US military base that had a small airport. One source said US officials have floated designating all three as US sovereign territory. Nothing has been agreed formally, and the final number of bases could change.
Surveillance is the point
The sites would mainly watch for Russian and Chinese maritime activity in the stretch of the northern Atlantic between Greenland, Iceland and the United Kingdom known as the GIUK Gap. Analysts said any further bases would likely be set on places that already have airfields or ports, since upgrading those costs less than building from scratch.
The US keeps one base in Greenland today. Pituffik Space Base, in the northwest, tracks missiles for NORAD but is not set up for maritime surveillance. During the Cold War the US operated around 17 military facilities on the island.
The people in the room
Michael Needham, a senior State Department official, leads for Washington. “Needham is running point,” a senior diplomat with knowledge of the talks said, adding that the administration is “approaching it very professionally.” He is usually joined by one or two officials from the State Department or the National Security Council. Facing him are Jeppe Tranholm, Denmark’s permanent state secretary of foreign affairs and its chief negotiator, Jesper Møller Sørensen, the Danish ambassador to the US, and Jacob Isbosethsen, the top Greenlandic diplomat in Washington.
Trump’s special envoy to Greenland, Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry, has not taken part. Three sources said he is largely absent from the process. A close ally of his said Landry “has never been to any of the actual talks.” His office did not respond to a request for comment.
After the threats
Trump said in January that the US should “own” Greenland to keep Russia or China from taking it, and that this could happen the “easy way” or the “hard way.” Denmark and NATO publicly rejected any idea of seizure, and US officials have not raised it in the negotiations. A former senior US defence official asked: “Why threaten an ally with a military operation or invasion when what you want is something that could be negotiated quite easily?” Retired General Glen VanHerck, who headed Northern Command and NORAD from 2020 to 2024, saw it differently. “Wherever the US and our allies leave a vacuum, that vacuum is often filled by China and Russia,” he said.
Negotiators are working inside a 1951 security pact between the US and Denmark. It gives Washington wide room to expand operations in Greenland, though Denmark must approve any expansion. Arctic security experts say Denmark has never turned down a US request.
Speaking at a democracy summit in Copenhagen on Tuesday, Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said the talks had “taken some steps in the right direction” and were “ongoing.” He said the conversations “now are in a better place than when we had our conversations through the media.” And he left no doubt about where Greenland stands. “We are not to be taken. We are not for sale.”
The White House confirmed high-level talks and said it was very optimistic. Denmark’s foreign ministry said only that “there is an ongoing diplomatic track with the United States.”
Sources
- US in closely guarded talks to open new bases in Greenland
- Proposed United States acquisition of Greenland
