Former U.S. Ambassador to Denmark Carla Sands and former National Security Council chief of staff Alex Gray on Saturday hailed President Donald Trump’s new Greenland security agreement, arguing on Newsmax’s ”America Right Now” that it represents a major expansion of America’s strategic position in the Arctic.
The agreement, signed Tuesday by the United States, Denmark, and Greenland, allows Washington to expand its military presence beyond Pituffik Space Base and establish additional defense areas, and gives U.S. aircraft broad rights to fly over and land in Greenland.
It also bars non-NATO countries from establishing military installations without the parties’ agreement and provides for screening potentially sensitive foreign investments.
President Trump’s art of the deal changed,” Sands said when asked how Trump overcame earlier Danish and European resistance.
”When he said, ‘We think we’re going to buy Greenland. We need to control Greenland,’ you know, that was his opening salvo. And now the United States basically has control of the defense of Greenland and the territory.”
Sands called the agreement ”a win for the American people,” while saying Denmark and Greenland also benefited.
”Denmark gets to win, too. They get to keep Greenland within the Kingdom of Denmark,” Sands said. ”And Greenland gets to win because they maintain their independence as a nation.”
Greenland remains a self-governing territory within the Kingdom of Denmark, and the agreement explicitly recognizes its right to self-determination.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said this week that the accord ”acknowledges and respects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark.”
Gray said Greenland’s strategic significance has been recognized by American presidents for more than a century because of its geography and proximity to potential threats to North America.
This is a critical key asset for U.S. national security because of its geography, because of where it sits on the map,” Gray said. ”And the president has figured that out, just like so many of his predecessors.”
Gray particularly highlighted Greenland’s direct participation in the new agreement, contrasting it with the original 1951 U.S.-Denmark defense agreement.
”This new deal that President Trump has done included the Greenlanders,” Gray said.
”So when ultimately the Greenlanders get independence, and I think we should take them at their word, I think that’s what they want to do, this will now be the governing document that an independent Greenland will follow.”
The agreement provides that if Greenland becomes independent, it would remain in NATO and assume the rights and obligations established by the new accord.
Gray also predicted Greenland would play a central role in Trump’s planned Golden Dome missile-defense system.
”100% it will,” Gray said when asked whether Golden Dome components would be stationed there.
”There is almost no better location in the Northern Hemisphere to put the Golden Dome missile defense sites than Greenland in order to protect our homeland.”
The agreement itself specifically identifies establishment of a Golden Dome defense system as part of the shared U.S., Danish, and Greenlandic security interest.
Sands, meanwhile, said an expanded American presence could produce significant economic benefits for Greenland through military construction and other U.S. investment.
”We’re going to invest in other ways,” Sands said, arguing Greenland could eventually capitalize on its natural resources.
”Greenland could become, if they choose to, probably the world’s richest people and the world’s richest island.”
Asked to rate the national-security significance of the agreement on a scale of one to 10, Gray answered, ”12.”
Sands went considerably higher.
”1,000,” she said. ”It’s the new Louisiana Purchase. Because we get a continent, an island that’s one-third the size of the continental U.S. This is giant for our defense.”
Jim Morley, Newsmax
