Why it is in the news
On 22 September 2026, at the United Nations in New York, US President Donald Trump, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenland’s Premier Jens-Frederik Nielsen signed an agreement that amends and supplements the 27 April 1951 US–Denmark agreement on the defence of Greenland. It lets the US set up new defence areas at Narsarsuaq in the south and Mestersvig in the east and expand Pituffik Space Base, while shutting out military presence and sensitive investment from states outside NATO.
The exam angle
Issue: Does the US–Denmark–Greenland agreement show that great-power security interests in the Arctic can be met through negotiated access rather than territorial acquisition — and at what cost to a small self-governing people’s autonomy?