U.S. to Reopen Cold War Base in Greenland and Station Forces at Dog-Sled Outpost

The United States plans to reopen a Cold War air base in southern Greenland and station forces at an east-coast outpost now used by Denmark’s Sirius Dog Sled Patrol, three people familiar with the agreement told Reuters on Monday.

The sites are Narsarsuaq, where the United States once ran Bluie West One before closing it in the 1950s, and Mestersvig, a remote military camp used by the Danish special-forces sled patrol that asserts sovereignty along the island’s east coast. Narsarsuaq’s civilian population has dwindled to a few dozen people.

President Donald Trump announced Friday that Washington, Copenhagen, and Nuuk had reached an agreement giving the United States “permanent control over security, and all other needs,” on the island. He called it an “Infinite” arrangement and said it came at no cost to the United States. That announcement did not name the two new sites.

Denmark, Greenland, and the United States are scheduled to sign at 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time Tuesday at the U.N. General Assembly in New York. Trump is to meet Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen for the ceremony, a White House official said. Reuters reported that the text has not been released and that details will not be final until the signing.

During the Cold War the United States kept 17 installations and more than 10,000 personnel in Greenland. Today the only enduring American presence is Pituffik Space Base, with about 150 U.S. military personnel. The new sites would be the first expansion of that footprint in decades.

Denmark has described the pact as placing Arctic security under NATO rather than leaving it solely to Washington and Copenhagen. Greenland’s government said last week the deal would strengthen security for Greenland, Denmark, the United States, and the Western alliance.

Trump spent months pressing for control of the island and at times refused to rule out military or economic pressure. The agreement is the administration’s answer to Chinese and Russian interest in Arctic routes, minerals, and basing as ice cover recedes.

The United States already treats Pituffik as a missile-warning and space-surveillance node. Adding a southern airfield and an east-coast site would give American forces more options along the GIUK gap approaches and along the route toward the North Atlantic.

Tuesday’s signing is the first public test of whether the “permanent control” language Trump used Friday matches what Denmark and Greenland will put on paper.