We have to have the ability to do exactly what we want to do: Trump to get permanent access to Greenland under new deal with NATO

US President Donald Trump said on Thursday he had secured total and permanent US access to Greenland in a deal with NATO, whose head said allies would have to step up their commitment to Arctic security to ward off threats from Russia and China, Reuters writes.

News of a framework deal came as Trump backed off tariff threats against Europe and ruled out taking Greenland by force.

Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen welcomed Trump’s comments but said he was still in the dark on many aspects.

“I don’t know what there is in the agreement, or the deal, about my country,” he told reporters in the capital Nuuk.

“We are ready to discuss a lot of things and we are ready to negotiate a better partnership and so on. But sovereignty is a red line.”

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on his return from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Trump said a new deal was being negotiated that would be “much more generous to the United States, so much more generous.”

He skirted questions on sovereignty, but said: “We have to have the ability to do exactly what we want to do.”