Khaberni - Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen confirmed on Thursday that all North Atlantic Treaty Organization "NATO" countries agree on a permanent presence in the Arctic region and around Greenland.
Upon arriving in Brussels to participate in a summit for EU leaders, she said, "Everyone within NATO agrees on this point... We need a permanent presence of the alliance in the Arctic region, including around Greenland."
Talks between U.S. President Donald Trump and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on Wednesday in Davos led to what the U.S. President described as "a framework for an upcoming agreement" regarding the Danish autonomous region.
Frederiksen explained that work is currently being carried out on "two axes," one related to NATO and the need for a greater presence in Greenland and its surroundings, and more broadly in the Arctic region.
The second axis concerns the United States on one hand, and Denmark and Greenland on the other, but Frederiksen preferred "not to discuss the details of the conversations" in this regard.
Rutte had previously clarified that the goal is to prevent Russia and China from gaining an "economic and military" foothold in Greenland.
Frederiksen expressed Copenhagen's readiness to renegotiate the defense agreement signed between it and Washington in 1951 regarding Greenland.
In this regard, she said: "We have a defense agreement dating back to 1951, we can expand it further, and it is certainly something we do not refuse, neither from the Danish side nor from the Greenland side."
