Trump's New Greenland Bases Are Planned for a Village of 139 People and an Arctic Dog-Sled Patrol Outpost

US President Donald Trump plans to put two new military bases in Greenland: a southern village and a dog-sled patrol post. He signed the deal with Denmark and Greenland on Tuesday, 22 September. The text names Narsarsuaq, home to 139 people in Statistics Greenland's 2026 count, and Mestersvig in the north-east.

The deal follows months in which Trump pressed for US control of Greenland, refusing until January to rule out force. Instead of ownership, the deal offers Washington new sites and wider military rights. American forces ran an airfield at Narsarsuaq until 1958. Building contracts must go to Greenlandic firms that can do the job.

What the Deal Lets Washington Build

Article IV lets the US set up defence areas at the two sites. All three sides must still agree on the terms. The same article lets Washington modernise and expand Pituffik Space Base, the US missile-warning site. Trump told the UN General Assembly before the signing: 'We will be building two very major military bases.' Denmark's Mette Frederiksen and Greenland's Jens-Frederik Nielsen signed beside him, as the White House post below shows.

US aircraft could fly over Greenland and land at any site. Countries outside the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) need all three sides' consent to open a base. The same goes for keeping troops there for long. Ole Wæver, an international relations professor at the University of Copenhagen, told TIME that 'the new deal is indeed very close to the 1951 treaty.' There is no end date. Denmark and Greenland pledge that an independent Greenland would keep the deal.

A Former US Airfield and a North-East Station

Narsarsuaq's airfield, Bluie West One, was one of 17 US bases in Greenland after 1945, according to Al Jazeera, and only Pituffik remains. Reuters this week put the population at a few dozen. The official count of 139 came on 1 January, before the village lost its main air link. On 16 April, a new airport in Qaqortoq became southern Greenland's main air gateway, according to Visit Greenland.

Mestersvig lies on Greenland's east coast, about 950 miles (1,540km) from Narsarsuaq in a straight line. Denmark's Sirius Dog Sled Patrol, a special forces unit, uses the outpost. Iris Ferguson, who led Arctic policy at the Pentagon under Joe Biden, told CNN that the deal 'really pushes in the right direction towards advancing common goals.' She added that each site would need costly new buildings to house troops and protect equipment.

What Must Happen Before Building Starts

The deal only starts once Denmark and Greenland finish their parliamentary steps and send Washington a formal note. Until then, the older agreements based on the 1951 defence pact still apply to US forces. The deal includes neither a start date nor a troop number.

Malene Vahl Rasmussen, mayor of the Kujalleq area around Narsarsuaq, told Reuters that 'trust really needs to be rebuilt within that partnership.' Some Greenlanders fear more US planes and ships could disturb hunting and fishing grounds, the agency reported. She noted that the deal makes the US respect that way of life.