Greenland Leader Admits US Military Presence on Island Is Part of Negotiations With Washington
PM Nielsen faces the US interest on his island head-on.
Danish caretaker Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has lost the chance of negotiating a new coalition, after she led her Social Democrat party to the worst election result in its history.
Her ally, Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen, is now left to negotiate with the United States on the thorny issue of the designs by President Donald J. Trump over the Arctic island that is a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark.
Today (12), Nielsen said that increasing the US military presence in the Arctic territory is part of ongoing secret negotiations with Washington.
Washington and Copenhagen have been holding closely guarded talks on opening three new American military bases in southern Greenland. The installations would be designated U.S. sovereign territory and focus on tracking Russian and Chinese naval movements through the GIUK Gap.…
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) May 12, 2026
Washington is conducting closed-door negotiations with Denmark on expanding its military presence in Greenland.
According to the BBC, three new bases are planned to be placed in the south of the island to monitor Russian and Chinese activity in the North Atlantic. pic.twitter.com/H12MNkrF7u
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) May 12, 2026
Reuters reported:
“From the beginning, one of the issues has been that they don’t think we do enough in terms of national security and surveillance in our region, so security and more military presence in Greenland is part of the discussions,” Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen told reporters in Copenhagen.
Seeking to calm tensions, Greenland, Denmark and the US earlier this year agreed to hold high-level diplomatic negotiations to resolve the crisis, although the outcome of those ongoing talks has yet to be presented.”
“The BBC on Tuesday reported that U.S. officials in the talks had signaled they aim to open three new bases in southern Greenland, with one source saying Washington had floated designating the facilities as U.S. sovereign territory.
‘Right now, we have a defense agreement with the United States where it’s already possible to have more bases’, Nielsen said, adding that the existing defense framework was one possible basis for any expansion but that other arrangements could be explored.”
JUST IN: The U.S. is reportedly in “closely-guarded talks” to open three new military bases in Greenland.
— Polymarket (@Polymarket) May 12, 2026
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