Greenland Bases Forever

This week the U.S. entered into an agreement with both Denmark and Greenland which protects U.S. sovereignty, deters Russian and Chinese aggression, circles an increasingly fey and unreliable Canada with U.S. states and bases, and makes the U.S. exit from a sclerotic NATO more possible, if not more likely.

First, a little background. Contrary to the press and jokesters who ridiculed President Trump’s offer to buy Greenland, a territory of Denmark with about 56,000 inhabitants, we have long known its strategic importance. In 1951, we entered into an agreement with Denmark allowing us to establish a base at Thule. Article XIV of that Treaty states that “This Agreement, being in implementation of the North Atlantic Treaty, shall remain in effect for the duration of the North Atlantic Treaty.” If we left NATO or it otherwise ceased to exist, we had no clear right to maintain defenses there. Nor did we have exclusive rights to ban foreign investments which posed security threats to us. In time, the treaty was inadequate to protect our interests, as Russia now had ICBMs, and Russian nuclear submarines were navigating Arctic waters. Moreover, the small population of Greenland was talking about independence, and Russian and Chinese governments were not averse to bribing them substantially in exchange for operating rights there. Our agreement was with Denmark, and it’s unclear it could bind an independent Greenland.

It could even mean an independent Greenland strongly under Chinese influence might be on the other side of the negotiating table.

In sum, for a number of reasons, that dated Cold War-era treaty needed to be supplanted by something better, and better is what we got. This week’s agreement, which cost us nothing, guarantees forever “the complete ability to do what is necessary in Greenland in order to secure and defend “our security and that of Greenland.”