Map Shows Where US Set To Open New Military Bases In Greenland - Newsweek

A Newsweek map shows the reported locations of two new U.S. military bases to be built in Greenland.

President Donald Trump announced last week that a security agreement had been struck over the semi-autonomous Arctic territory which is part of the kingdom of Denmark.

It followed months of Trump's threats to take the island by force, which caused a diplomatic crisis within NATO, of which Denmark is a founding member.

Denmark, Greenland and the United States are expected to sign the security agreement Trump had boasted about at the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday.

Reuters reported that two sites would be part of an American military expansion on the island, including the rebooting of a Cold War-era military base.

Newsweek has contacted the White House and the Danish foreign ministry for comment.

Trump has highlighted Greenland's strategic significance, and NATO has increased its focus on defending the Arctic amid concerns about Russian military activity in the High North.

During the Cold War, there were 17 U.S. military installations staffed by 10,000 personnel, but this has dwindled to only one, Pituffik Space Base which is staffed by about 650 military personnel and civilian contractors, including about 200 active-duty U.S. military personnel.

Under the terms of the new deal, another two bases will be added, according to Reuters.

One site will be in Narsarsuaq on the southern tip of the island, the agency reported. It was the location of the Bluie West One military base, which operated between 1942 and 1958.

The base had a peak population of about 4,000 personnel and around 10,000 aircraft landed there on the way to WW2 theaters in Europe and North Africa.

It fell out of use due to mid-air refueling and the opening of the larger Thule Air Base in northern Greenland.

The other site will be Mestersvig, a military outpost in eastern Greenland currently used by the Sirius Dog Sled Patrol, a Danish special forces unit, Reuters reported.

Copenhagen cautiously welcomed the deal Trump announced, saying it means that NATO oversees Arctic security, rather than just the U.S. and Denmark.

Details had been kept under wraps, but in a previous statement to Newsweek, the U.S. State Department called it an "unprecedented agreement with Greenland and Denmark guaranteeing U.S. security interests in the Arctic at no cost to the U.S. taxpayer."

The State Department also said the deal secured permanent U.S. security control over Greenland and ensured that the island would be a part of the strategic defense area of North America.

"Under the previous status quo, any country, including adversaries, could be allowed to build a military base in Greenland or send troops to Greenland," the State Department statement said.

This agreement guarantees that China and Russia cannot have a base, send troops or invest in sensitive sectors in Greenland; it added, "this deal lasts forever and remains fully in effect, even if Greenland becomes a fully independent country."

Jeppe Kofod, a fellow with the Atlantic Council Global Energy Center, said in comments emailed to Newsweek that under the deal the US gets a stronger and lasting security presence in Greenland, "while the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the kingdom and Greenlanders’ right to self-determination remain intact.”

Newsweek’s reporters and editors used Martyn, our AI assistant, to produce this story. Learn more about Martyn here.

Contact Newsweek editors on this story: John Fitzpatrick and Gray R. Thomas