On 22 September 2026 the United States, **Denmark** and Greenland signed a deal at the United Nations in New York. It lets the US expand Pituffik and open new sites in the south and east of Greenland, and it bars any country outside NATO from setting up military bases there unless all three agree. It is not a sale: Greenland stays part of the Danish realm, with the right to decide its own future. The parliaments in Copenhagen and Nuuk still have to ratify it. On 22 September 2026, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, the US, Denmark and Greenland signed an agreement amending the 1951 defence agreement — allowing an expanded Pituffik and new US sites (reported at Narsarsuaq and Mestersvig), barring non-NATO military installations without all three governments' consent, and affirming Danish sovereignty and Greenland's self-determination; ratification by the Danish and Greenlandic parliaments was pending.

GREENLAND · SEPTEMBER 2026

The Deal

← All storiesGREENLAND · SEPTEMBER 2026

The Deal

The world's biggest island just signed a security deal with the country that once offered to buy it — and the map explains why everyone wants it.

3 steps · 1 min · 8 sources · updated 2026-09-28

The biggest island

Greenland is the biggest island on Earth, and about four-fifths of it lies under ice. It belongs to the Kingdom of Denmark, with its own government and about 57,000 people. In 1946 the United States secretly offered Denmark 100 million dollars in gold for it, and Denmark said no.

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The Deal

The world's biggest island just signed a security deal with the country that once offered to buy it — and the map explains why everyone wants it.

The biggest island

**Greenland** is the biggest island on Earth, and about four-fifths of it lies under ice. It belongs to the Kingdom of **Denmark**, with its own government and about 57,000 people. In 1946 the United States secretly offered Denmark 100 million dollars in gold for it, and Denmark said no.

Claim (consensus): Greenland (about 2.17 million km², some 80% ice-covered, about 57,000 people) is a self-governing part of the Kingdom of Denmark; in December 1946 the US secretly offered Denmark $100 million in gold for it, which Denmark declined.

On the line

The short way from **Russia** to North America runs over the top of the world, right past Greenland. That is why the United States has watched for missiles from Pituffik, in the far north, since the 1950s. And the gap between Greenland, **Iceland** and the **United Kingdom** is how Russia's northern fleet gets into the Atlantic.

Claim (consensus): Great-circle routes between Russia and North America pass over or near Greenland; Pituffik (formerly Thule) hosts US missile-warning and space-surveillance radar, and the Greenland–Iceland–UK gap is the Russian Northern Fleet's route into the North Atlantic.

A deal, not a sale

On 22 September 2026 the United States, **Denmark** and Greenland signed a deal at the United Nations in New York. It lets the US expand Pituffik and open new sites in the south and east of Greenland, and it bars any country outside NATO from setting up military bases there unless all three agree. It is not a sale: Greenland stays part of the Danish realm, with the right to decide its own future. The parliaments in Copenhagen and Nuuk still have to ratify it.

Claim (consensus): On 22 September 2026, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, the US, Denmark and Greenland signed an agreement amending the 1951 defence agreement — allowing an expanded Pituffik and new US sites (reported at Narsarsuaq and Mestersvig), barring non-NATO military installations without all three governments' consent, and affirming Danish sovereignty and Greenland's self-determination; ratification by the Danish and Greenlandic parliaments was pending.

The Deal

The Deal

The biggest island

On the line

A deal, not a sale

Sources