The Secretariat of State has reviewed the agreement concluded between the United States, the Kingdom of Denmark and Greenland on 22 September 2026.
Kaharagia reaffirms its support for the right of the Greenlandic people to determine their own political status and the future international position of Greenland.
The agreement recognises the right of the Greenlandic people to self-determination, including the possibility of independence. Kaharagia is concerned, however, by the obligations which the agreement seeks to carry into such an independent state.
Article XI provides that the agreement has no end date and may only be amended by mutual consent. It further provides that, in the event of Greenlandic independence, the independent Greenlandic state is to remain within NATO and assume the rights and obligations arising from the agreement and the existing defence arrangements.
The Government of Kaharagia considers these provisions to amount to political entrapment.
The terms of Greenland’s relationship with the United States today may properly be decided by the Greenlandic authorities acting within their present constitutional powers. The defence and foreign policy of a future independent Greenland should be decided by that state.
Kaharagia therefore objects to provisions which seek to determine in advance the military obligations and alliance commitments of a Greenland which does not yet exist as an independent country. The 2026 agreement contains no unilateral withdrawal provision by which a future Greenland could simply bring those arrangements to an end.
This concern is made more serious by the extent of the military rights provided under the agreement. Article VI grants United States forces access and movement between defence areas through Greenland by land, air and sea. It also permits United States military aircraft to fly over and land in Greenland and grants American public vessels access within Greenlandic territorial waters, subject to restrictions agreed between the parties.
Kaharagia recognises that the Government of Greenland participated in the negotiation of the agreement and chose to sign it. Our objection is not to Greenland choosing defence cooperation with the United States. It is to an agreement intended to bind a future independent Greenland to that choice without providing that future state with a clear right to withdraw.
Independence cannot be limited to the transfer of constitutional authority while major questions of defence and foreign policy have already been settled on a permanent basis.
Should Greenland become independent, Kaharagia believes that the Greenlandic state must be free to determine whether it wishes to continue these arrangements, amend them or end them.
Kaharagia does not speak for Greenland. Our position remains that the political future of Greenland must be determined by the Greenlandic people and must remain theirs to determine in the future.
The future of Greenland belongs to the Greenlandic people.