Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday hailed his “fantastic” relationship with Denmark and Greenland after signing a new security deal on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, in a move that America’s European allies hope will end one of the most dangerous recent strains in transatlantic ties.
Trump’s push over Greenland had brought Denmark, Greenland and the United States into a prolonged standoff that nearly strained NATO unity and damaged trust with one of Washington’s oldest partners. While the new agreement broadens cooperation, the US already had extensive military access under a 1951 deal, and the gains appear limited when set against the mistrust that built up from the end of 2024.
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One clear outcome of the episode is Greenland’s larger role in decisions affecting it. Even if the promised investments and contracts do not fully materialise, the deal marks a significant step in Greenland’s push for greater autonomy and a stronger voice in foreign and security matters.
“A notable change is Greenland itself at the table today, signing this agreement,” Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said at the signing ceremony at the UN. Greenland, the world’s largest island with a population of about 56,000, mostly Inuit, remained a colony until the early 1950s. It became a self-governing country within the Kingdom of Denmark only in 2009.
Under the Self-Government Act, Greenland’s right to seek independence through a future local vote was recognised, but Denmark kept control of defence and foreign affairs. “I cannot stress it enough: This is the first time that we are venturing into a binding agreement as a country,” Naaja Nathanielsen, one of Greenland’s two lawmakers in the Danish parliament and a former government minister in Nuuk, told AP. “That is a huge step forward in our quest for more self-autonomy.”
The agreement also comes against the backdrop of Greenland’s fraught relationship with Denmark. Greenland’s economy depends heavily on Denmark, and the two have close family, educational, cultural and linguistic ties. But that relationship has also been shaped by Danish policies that harmed Greenlanders, including forced contraception, the removal of Inuit children for re-education by Danish foster families, and parental-competency tests that led to children being separated from their parents.
“For many, many years you believed that you were a good coloniser,” Mte Bourup Egede, then Greenland’s prime minister and now its foreign minister, told Danish journalists early last year after Trump, newly elected at the time, made his first military threat against the island. “But time has also caught up with us, and … cruel things have come to light.” Many of those affected are still alive. Hundreds of Inuit women have sought compensation from Denmark, saying health authorities fitted them with intrauterine devices, often when they were teenagers and without informed consent. Danish authorities estimate that up to 4,500 women and girls received IUDs between the 1960s and the mid-1970s. Denmark delivered its first official apology for the historic mistreatment in the summer of 2025.
Ulrik Pram Gad, a senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies, said the standoff with the US “has been applying pressure and focused some of the Danish attention” on reconciliation with Greenland, but added that “perhaps, some Greenlanders feel that it’s not as credible as it could have been without Trump”. At the same time, anger over Trump’s tactics helped Denmark reinforce support for its sovereignty and softened calls in Greenland for a rapid move to independence.
At the height of the crisis in January, Nielsen said, “if we have to choose between the United States and Denmark here and now, we choose Denmark. We choose NATO.” For Denmark, the main gain has been easing pressure from Trump and recasting the dispute as a wider European security issue. “Danish and Greenlandic diplomats have been working very hard to have European allies be part of this,” Pram Gad said. “The result is an attempt to patch together the NATO alliance.” Denmark has accepted some limits to its sovereignty, though investments by rival countries such as Russia had already long been ruled out. Overall, the new deal ends a damaging dispute, while also giving Greenland a more direct place in shaping decisions about its future.
With PTI Inputs
– Ends
SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
