Greenland Draws ‘Red Line’ as Trump Pushes US Sovereignty Over Arctic Bases

A senior Greenland cabinet minister has warned that President Donald Trump’s push to acquire U.S. military bases as sovereign American territory was a “red line.”

Naaja Nathanielsen rejected the idea of the Arctic island surrendering any sovereignty in an interview with USA Today published Tuesday, undercutting Trump’s claim that a new framework with NATO, announced at the World Economic Forum in Davos, would grant the US effective ownership of its bases on the Denmark-owned territory.

“Greenland giving up sovereignty is not on the table for now,” Nathanielsen said, a position that echoed the island’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen.

Nathanielsen told the outlet that her government was only informed after Trump and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte had already met, stressing that NATO “does not have a jurisdiction or mandate” to discuss sovereignty. Her position was the same as Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, who said Denmark could negotiate on almost anything “but we cannot negotiate on our sovereignty.”

“Our mission as politicians and members of the cabinet is to try to get things back on track and figure out through dialogue how to deal with this,” she said.

Trump, meanwhile, claimed in a Fox Business interview in Davos, Switzerland, that he was “going to have total access to Greenland” and “all the military access we want.”

The U.S. currently operates one base on the island, Pituffik Space Base, housing around 150 personnel and a key radar installation. A defense agreement already allows Washington to expand its footprint with Greenlandic and Danish consent, a point critics say makes Trump’s escalation unnecessary.

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