Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, head of NATO’s military committee, stressed on Thursday 22 January that Greenlanders should not worry about the current situation, explaining that negotiations were underway between the Americans, Danes and Greenlanders.
“Negotiations are underway, there are discussions at political level. Greenlanders should not be afraid”, he explained after a meeting of the Chiefs of Staff at NATO. The day before, in Davos, US President Donald Trump had announced that he would not use force to obtain Greenland (see EUROPE 13791/1).
Donald Trump later announced on Truth Social that during a “very productive” meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, the framework for a “future agreement concerning Greenland and, in fact, the entire Arctic region” had been devised. He told journalists that the draft agreement gave his country “everything he wanted” “forever”.
The agreement would cover two areas: one on Arctic security and the other, more trilateral, between the United States, Denmark and Greenland on the 1951 defence treaty between Denmark and the United States. On her arrival at the Summit, the Danish Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen, recalled that she had proposed to the Americans a year ago to discuss this agreement, but that this had to be done within a framework in which Denmark is a sovereign State. She hoped to find a political solution within a democratic framework of cooperation between the Allies.
On Thursday morning, NATO’s Secretary General explained that he had had a “very good discussion” with the Americans on what NATO and the so-called Nordic countries (United States, Canada, Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway) can do collectively, and in particular, to keep the Arctic safe and free from the influence of Russia and China, whether economically or militarily.
According to Mr Rutte, “this is not about Greenland or the Arctic, but about how to protect ourselves against our adversaries”.
In Brussels, the Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR), General Alexus G. Grynkewich, explained that one of the most worrying changes in the region was increased cooperation between China and Russia. “We have seen this in recent years, both in the maritime sphere, with an intensification of joint patrols, and in the aerospace sphere, with joint patrols of increasing duration. Their joint activity is therefore clearly increasing”, he detailed at the end of a meeting of the Chiefs of Staff.
Asked about the framework of the agreement between the United States and Denmark, Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone said that the military had not yet received “directives”. “We are only at the beginning”, he explained, adding that NATO was ready to strengthen security in the Arctic and Greenland.
While a NATO mission, ‘Arctic Sentry’, has been mentioned at political level, a NATO source said that it had not been discussed at military level.
“No planning has started at the moment, but we are ready”, he explained, adding that he had not received any political instructions to move forward in this direction. While long-planned military exercises will be taking place in the Arctic over the coming months, no additional missions are planned due to the current situation. No operations are planned in Greenland, added SACEUR.
Ahead of the extraordinary European Council meeting on Thursday 22 January, the President of the European Council, António Costa, held extensive talks with the Secretary General of NATO and the Danish Prime Minister to be briefed on the discussions underway with the United States, according to a European source. This source pointed out that the territorial integrity of EU Member States was “a fundamental principle of the Union”. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant with the editorial staff)