Trump signs a Greenland security agreement at the United Nations today with Denmark's prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, and Greenland's prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen. A White House official told CNN the three "will formalize their new agreement that will secure and defend the security of Greenland and the United States." Trump speaks to the General Assembly second today, after Brazil's president.
He already told the world what he thinks he is getting. On Friday he said the deal hands the United States "permanent control over security, and all other needs" in Greenland. That is his phrase, reported the same evening by CBS, NBC, the Guardian, the BBC and CNBC.
Frederiksen's office described the same paper differently. Her staff posted a notice that Friday and titled it "strengthened security in the Arctic and North Atlantic Area." No control. No permanence. A cooperation headline.
Both descriptions go under the same signatures today. One document, two names for it, and every other American ally reading the gap between them tonight.
Eight months ago Frederiksen was measuring this as a threat. Stephen Miller announced on 7 January that Washington held a "formal position that Greenland should be part of the US," and said military force was "always an option." What Frederiksen said back put the alliance itself on the table, and eight months later she is standing beside him to sign.
