By Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen
COPENHAGEN, Sept 22 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump is due to meet with leaders of Greenland and Denmark on Tuesday to sign a deal that will allow a larger US military presence on Greenland and could end a standoff over the strategically located and mineral-rich island.
The agreement will allow the US to expand its military footprint in Greenland, three people familiar with the matter have told Reuters.
In addition to the existing Pituffik Space Base, the deal is expected to open two new military sites: Narsarsuaq, a former Cold War airbase whose population has dwindled to just a few dozen, and Mestersvig, currently used by the Sirius Dog Sled Patrol, an elite Danish special forces unit.
Greenland, a former colony and now a semi-autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark, sits between the Arctic and North America and holds vast energy resources.
Trump's refusal to rule out military or economic force to acquire it triggered a diplomatic crisis in January within NATO and forced Denmark and the island's government into intensive negotiations.
COMPETING CLAIMS
Trump will meet Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen at 10:30 a.m. ET (1430 GMT) at the UN General Assembly in New York for the trilateral signing ceremony.
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen has said the agreement will place Arctic security under NATO's collective watch rather than leaving it to Washington and Copenhagen alone.
Trump said on Friday that the deal gives the US "permanent control over security, and all other needs, in Greenland." Denmark has not responded to Trump's assertion but has said the agreement respects the kingdom's sovereignty and Greenland's right to self-determination.
"The reason why we can conclude this agreement, which is beneficial from Greenlandic, American, and European perspectives, as well as on behalf of the Kingdom of Denmark, is that it is a matter of security policy," Frederiksen said in New York on Monday.
The text remains unpublished ahead of Tuesday's signing. It remains unclear whether the agreement amends a 1951 defence treaty that has been the legal basis for US presence, or operates as a new framework.
The deal marks a shift from Trump's earlier ambitions for an outright acquisition of Greenland, an island three times the size of Texas with a population of only 57,000 scattered along its rugged coastline.
But it represents a significant expansion of US military infrastructure on the island — the first major increase since the Cold War, when the US maintained 17 installations and more than 10,000 personnel there.
(Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Xevi Fontdegloria)
