Greenland wants more out of US defence agreement, minister says

By Lili Bayer

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Greenland wants to benefit more from a defence deal struck decades ago with the United States, the territory's foreign minister, Vivian Motzfeldt, told Reuters on Thursday while also calling for closer cooperation with the European Union.

U.S. President Donald Trump has floated the idea of acquiring Greenland, refusing to rule out taking the island by force. The idea has been rebuffed both by leaders in Greenland and Denmark, which governs the island.

A 1951 agreement between the U.S. and Denmark gave the U.S. the right to move around freely and construct military bases in Greenland as long as Denmark and Greenland are notified.

"We want to get more out of this agreement," Greenland's Motzfeldt said in an interview, adding that Greenland wants to expand cooperation with the U.S. on climate change, education and business.

The minister, who was visiting Brussels for talks with senior EU officials, also said that Greenland wants to build stronger ties to the bloc and diversify its economy.

"We want to have more bilateral and direct cooperation with the EU," she said, noting that she wants the relationship to be more visible and pointing to critical minerals as an area of cooperation.

Greenland and the EU signed a memorandum of understanding in 2023 on a strategic partnership to develop sustainable raw materials value chains.

In March, U.S. Vice President JD Vance, on a visit to Greenland which stoked deep unease, accused Denmark of not doing a good job keeping the island safe and suggested the United States would better protect it.

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said this month the people of Greenland should be able to make their own choices free from external pressure.

"Under the circumstances of what [is] happening in the United States, we have the EU that stands for us," Motzfeldt said. "The future of Greenland is up to the Greenlandic people," she said.

(Reporting by Lili Bayer in Brussels and Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen in Copenhagen; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)