US to open military bases at Narsarsuaq and Mestersvig under Greenland deal
The US, Denmark and Greenland are set to sign the agreement today at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Published
The United States, Denmark and Greenland are due to sign an agreement today at the UN General Assembly in New York that gives Washington the right to establish military bases at Narsarsuaq and Mestersvig in Greenland.
Narsarsuaq's population has fallen to a few dozen people since the US closed its Bluie West One base there in the 1950s, according to Reuters via US News. Mestersvig is currently a military outpost used by the Sirius Dog Sled Patrol, a Danish special forces unit, the same report says.
President Trump said last Friday that a deal had been reached giving the US what he called "permanent control over security, and all other needs" in Greenland, CNBC reported. Denmark has said the agreement places Arctic security under NATO's watch rather than leaving it solely to the US and Denmark, according to the Jerusalem Post. The US already operates one base in Greenland, Pituffik Space Base, and the new agreement would extend its footprint to two more sites, the Jerusalem Post reported.
The base access formalizes what Secretary of State Rubio had already signaled as US Arctic strategy, so the agreement itself adds little new information to markets. What matters is whether the Kremlin's stated concern translates into Russian countermoves in the Arctic or elsewhere, which remains unclear. For now, the deal is largely priced into the geopolitical premium already built into commodity and energy markets.