The US wishes to open three new bases in the semi-autonomous southern part Denmark as they strive to resolve a diplomatic crisis that erupted after President Donald Trump threatened to seize Greenland by force.
The United States is regularly holding talks with Denmark as it plans to expand its military presence in Greenland, the BBC confirmed from multiple officials familiar with the discussions.
They said negotiations between the two sides have progressed in recent months.
The White House too confirmed that the administration was into high-level talks with Greenland and Denmark, however not divulging any detail of the negotiations. There is an ongoing diplomatic track with the United States. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will not go into further detail at this time,” a foreign ministry spokesperson said.
According to the BBC, a White House official said the US government believe that the talks were advancing in the right path.
The US wishes to open three new bases in the semi-autonomous southern part Denmark as they strive to resolve a diplomatic crisis that erupted after President Donald Trump threatened to seize Greenland by force.
In January, Trump claimed that the US should “own” Greenland to keep Russia or China away from taking it. This could happen in an “easy way ” or a “the hard way”, he said.
According to a source cultivated by the BBC, the US have now floated an arrangement where the three new military bases would be formally marked as US sovereign territory.
The bases in southern Greenland would majorly focus on surveillance of potential Russian and Chinese maritime activity in the northern Atlantic between Greenland, Iceland and the United Kingdom, the BBC reported.
However, no formal agreement between the two sides has been reached and the final number of new bases could hence change, the BBC reported citing sources. One of these bases could be located in Narsarsuaq, in the place of a former US military base housing a small airport.
The other bases would also likely be opened at sites that already have an infrastructure such as airfields or ports, that could be upgraded at lower costsinstead of spending hefty amounts in building new facilities.
— with inputs from BBC
