An agreement with Denmark and Greenland will allow Washington to establish new defense areas at Narsarsuaq and Mestersvig, returning the United States to two remote Arctic outposts—one of them near a vast but unproven oil prospect.
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In two distant corners of Greenland, places that had slipped to the margins of global attention are being drawn back into the contest for the Arctic.
Narsarsuaq, in the south, once served as an American air base during the Second World War and the early years of the Cold War. Mestersvig, on the eastern coast, is now a small Danish military outpost supporting operations in one of the island’s most isolated regions.
Under an agreement signed by the United States, Denmark and Greenland in New York on September 22, Washington will be allowed to establish new defense areas at both locations and expand its operations at Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland.
The official text leaves the size, mission and timetable of the new facilities to further negotiations. It must also complete the necessary parliamentary procedures in Denmark and Greenland before entering into force.
Donald Trump, however, presented the plan in more ambitious terms. Speaking before the signing ceremony, the US president said Washington would immediately begin developing a larger military presence on the island.
“We will be building two very major military bases,” he said.
US Military Bases Return to Greenland’s Cold War Map
Narsarsuaq is familiar territory for the United States. American forces built an airfield there during the Second World War and continued using it until the military base closed in 1958. The site later became a civilian airport, but its position in southern Greenland still offers access to the North Atlantic.
Mestersvig has a different history. The outpost is operated by Denmark and supports Arctic missions, including activities connected to the Sirius Dog Sled Patrol.
Together with Pituffik, the two sites would give the United States a military presence stretching from southern Greenland to its eastern coast and remote northwest.
Reuters described the agreement as the first major expansion of American military infrastructure in Greenland since the Cold War, when the US operated 17 installations and stationed more than 10,000 personnel across the island.
Today, its permanent presence is concentrated at Pituffik, where roughly 200 personnel support missile warning, missile defense and space surveillance operations.
The agreement comes as the Arctic takes on greater military and economic importance. Melting sea ice is opening longer seasonal shipping routes, while the United States and its allies are watching Russia’s military activity and China’s growing interest in the region.
Trump said the agreement would prevent US adversaries from establishing military installations or making sensitive investments in Greenland without American approval. The text bars non-NATO countries from maintaining a persistent military presence unless all three parties agree.
Greenland and Denmark have stressed that the agreement does not transfer sovereignty to Washington. Greenland remains part of the Kingdom of Denmark, and the document formally recognizes the Greenlandic people’s right to self-determination.
Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen presented the deal as a shared security commitment that also gives Greenland a more direct voice in decisions about its future.
“Your security is our security, and our security is your security,” he said at the signing ceremony.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen called it a deal that could “last forever,” arguing that it strengthens deterrence while keeping the arrangement rooted in NATO.
But the ceremony did not erase the tensions that preceded it. Trump’s earlier refusal to rule out military or economic pressure to acquire Greenland had alarmed residents and strained relations between NATO allies.
After the signing, Nielsen said Greenland and the United States would still need to rebuild trust.
Naaja Nathanielsen, one of Greenland’s representatives in the Danish parliament, said many islanders had feared losing both their country and their livelihoods.
“A lot of trust has been tested,” she told the Associated Press, while still describing the agreement as an important step towards greater Greenlandic autonomy and a larger role in international decisions.
Oil on the Same Map
Mestersvig’s location has also drawn attention for another reason. Nearby lies the wider Jameson Land region, where American and British companies hope to test one of the Arctic’s largest prospective oil resources.
The widely repeated figure of 13 billion barrels comes from an evaluation commissioned by companies involved in the project. Its most optimistic scenario identified approximately 13.03 billion barrels of gross prospective recoverable oil across 58 geological targets.
That is not the same as a discovery.
Jameson Land remains undrilled, and no commercial oil or gas field has been found there. Filings made by Texas-based Greenland Energy with the US Securities and Exchange Commission place the possible volume across its licensed area in a wide range—from about one billion to 13 billion barrels.
Greenland Energy is working with Britain’s 80 Mile on plans to drill two exploration wells. By financing that work, the American company could earn an interest of up to 70% in the project.
The companies still face regulatory, environmental and logistical hurdles. Drilling preparations have already been delayed over permits, while harsh weather, limited infrastructure and the cost of transporting equipment and any future production could determine whether the project is commercially viable.
Nothing in the security agreement mentions oil, Jameson Land or the 13-billion-barrel estimate. Nor is there public evidence that Mestersvig was selected to protect or support the exploration project.
The two developments nevertheless place eastern Greenland at the centre of overlapping ambitions: Washington’s effort to strengthen its Arctic defenses and an oil industry still trying to discover what lies beneath the frozen ground.
Before either story advances, Greenland will have decisions of its own to make. The new defense areas require political approval and further negotiations; the oil project requires permits and drilling.
For now, America’s military return and eastern Greenland’s oil ambitions meet in only one place: on the map.
Sources
- US–Denmark–Greenland Defense Agreement — White House
- Agreement between Greenland, Denmark and the United States — Danish Prime Minister’s Office
- Trump, Greenland and Denmark sign Arctic agreement — Reuters
- Trump signs US–Denmark–Greenland security agreement — Associated Press
- Greenland Energy filing — US Securities and Exchange Commission