Illustration of a white radar dome on an ice floe, with snowy mountains and a green and purple aurora in the night sky

News 4 November 2026

Greenland's parliament backs the US defence deal 16-0. Denmark votes next

Lawmakers in Nuuk approved the deal signed in September by Trump, Mette Frederiksen and Jens-Frederik Nielsen, with seven abstentions. It updates the 1951 framework, expands Pituffik and adds defence areas at Narsarsuaq and Mestersvig. The Danish parliament's final debate is on 19 November.

Greenland’s parliament, the Inatsisartut, approved the security agreement with the United States and Denmark on Tuesday. Sixteen members voted for it, none against, and seven abstained, after months in which Donald Trump refused to rule out force to take the island.

The text was signed in New York in September, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, by Trump, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen.

What the deal does

It updates the defence framework set up in 1951 and gives the US military more room. Pituffik Space Base in the northwest can expand, and two new defence areas are created at Narsarsuaq and Mestersvig, with the technical arrangements still to be agreed.

In return the text reaffirms Danish sovereignty and Greenlanders’ right to self-determination. It has no end date and keeps running if Greenland becomes independent. Contracts to build, run or dismantle the bases are meant to go to Greenlandic firms as far as possible.

“Greenland is our country. Greenland will always be our country,” Nielsen said. The State Department called it “another major victory for American national security”.

A noisy sitting

Proceedings were briefly halted. Foreign Minister Múte B. Egede accused the opposition party Naleraq of leaking material from a closed committee meeting; the party denied it and tabled a no-confidence motion against him. Naleraq had wanted a referendum and argues the island gets too little, financially and environmentally. It still did not vote against.

What’s left

The Folketing, Denmark’s parliament, holds its first debate on 12 November and its final one on 19 November. The deal takes effect once Washington is notified that all approvals are complete. On the US side it is treated as an executive agreement, so it does not go to the Senate.

For Portugal it is another piece of the North Atlantic picture, where Lisbon had already taken on more of the maritime load with an eye on the Arctic.

By Marta Carneiro

Illustration: Tugadaily

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News 4 November 2026

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News 3 November 2026

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News 31 October 2026

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News 30 October 2026

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News 29 October 2026

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News 28 October 2026

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Map of the Iberian Peninsula marking Urda, in Toledo province, on the high-speed line between Madrid and Seville

News 28 October 2026

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News 28 October 2026

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News 27 October 2026

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News 26 October 2026

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