Greenland's parliament voted on Tuesday to approve a security agreement with the United States and Denmark, advancing a trilateral deal designed to strengthen military cooperation in the Arctic and North Atlantic following months of tensions over US President Donald Trump's ambitions to acquire the island.
Lawmakers in the 31-seat parliament backed the agreement by 16 votes to none, with seven abstentions, AP and Reuters reported. The agreement's text reaffirms Danish sovereignty and Greenland's right to self-determination.
The agreement, signed in September by Trump, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen during the United Nations General Assembly in New York, would expand American military operations across the strategically located Arctic territory.
It opens two new US defence areas, at Narsarsuaq in the south and Mestersvig in the east, and allows Washington to set up parts of Trump's proposed Golden Dome missile defence system, AP and Reuters reported.
The agreement also permits Washington to modernise and expand operations at Pituffik Space Base, an existing American military installation in northwestern Greenland.
Despite the expanded military presence, Greenland would remain under Danish sovereignty, with provisions ensuring the agreement continues to apply should the territory eventually pursue independence.
On 6 January, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement that the president and his team were "discussing a range of options" to acquire Greenland and that "utilizing the U.S. Military is always an option".
In September, Trump told the UN General Assembly the deal gave the United States "permanent control over security and all other needs on that territory", while Frederiksen, at the signing, called it "a deal that can last forever".
Greenlandic Foreign Minister Mute Egede, of the governing Inuit Ataqatigiit party, welcomed the parliamentary approval as an important step for the self-governing territory.
Speaking before lawmakers in Nuuk shortly before the vote, Egede said: "We must accept that peace and stability are no longer something we can take for granted," Reuters reported.
However, opposition party Naleraq, a prominent advocate of Greenlandic independence, questioned whether the agreement offered sufficient economic benefits.
Party chairman Pele Broberg said: "We are looking for a better agreement that we can benefit from when we become an independent state," Reuters reported.
A majority of lawmakers had already signalled support for the agreement during its first reading in the Greenlandic parliament on 12 October.
As an executive agreement, it does not require approval from the US Senate. The agreement will enter into force once the necessary parliamentary procedures in Denmark and Greenland have been completed.
Attention now turns to Denmark, where parliament is scheduled to hold its first reading on 12 November, according to the Greenlandic newspaper Sermitsiaq, and a final vote on 19 November, according to the Danish news agency Ritzau.