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FIRST ON FOX: President Donald Trump struck a sweeping agreement with Denmark and Greenland this week granting the United States permanent military rights on the strategically placed Arctic island.
The U.S. will now have permanent access, basing and overflight rights in Greenland, and the ability to establish additional military installations as needed, according to a senior U.S. official who outlined the deal exclusively to Fox News Digital.
The deal bars China, Russia and other non-NATO countries from establishing military bases or maintaining troops in Greenland. It also restricts adversaries from investing in sensitive sectors that could pose a threat to U.S. national security.
“This historic deal is a huge win for the United States and the American people,” Secretary of State Marco 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.”
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President Donald Trump has struck a sweeping agreement with Denmark and Greenland granting the United States permanent military rights on the strategically vital Arctic island, Fox News Digital has learned. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
“Greenland will forever be part of the strategic defense area of North America and exclude any adversary from it and the surrounding area,” Rubio said. “This deal permanently and completely addresses our national security concerns in Greenland.
The new agreement, which has no expiration date, stops short of transferring sovereignty over Greenland to the U.S. But administration officials still view its permanence as key to addressing the security concerns that drove Trump’s push to acquire the territory in the first place.
“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 designed to remain in effect even if Greenland eventually becomes an independent country, they added.
Trump had repeatedly argued that control of Greenland was necessary for U.S. national security, pointing to the island’s strategic location in the Arctic as Russia and China expand their presence and capabilities in the region.
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.
The Pituffik Space Base (formerly Thule Air Base) is pictured in northern Greenland, on Oct. 4, 2023. (Thomas Traasdahl/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP via Getty Images)
Under the new agreement, however, 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, the official said.
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.
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The deal 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.
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.
Denmark Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen issued a defiant message against President Donald Trump’s designs on Greenland at the 2026 NATO Leaders Summit on Wednesday in Ankara, Turkey. (Serdar Ozsoy/Getty Images)
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.
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“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.”