Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen holds a press conference in Nuuk, Greenland, January 22, 2026.
Marco Jurica | Reuters
Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said at a press conference on Thursday that he did not know what was in store.circle“Fix this president Donald Trump announced after the meeting NATOleader the day before.
But Nielsen stressed that no deal on Greenland would be made without the input of the island and its Danish kingdom.
Any such agreement must respect Greenland’s “red lines,” including its sovereignty and territorial integrity, he added.
“We choose the Kingdom of Denmark. We choose the EU. We choose NATO,” Nielsen told the press in Nuuk. “It’s not just about Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark, it’s about the world order for all of us.”
The statement is in line with an earlier statement by Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen Sovereignty of Greenland not subject to agreement.
Nielsen’s comments came a day after Trump, who has been aggressively pressuring Europe for weeks over the US occupation of Greenland, suddenly announced that he and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte had drawn up “the framework for a future agreement”.
The announcement, posted on Truth Social after a closed-door meeting in Davos, Switzerland, was detailed. In an interview with CNBCTrump called it a “deal concept” and said he would “explain it all the way through.”
But the deal was enough for Trump to back out of the upcoming deal rates he slapped eight European countries he came to the defense of Greenland during the president’s saber-rattling.
Trump suggested to CNBC that the structure exists Mineral rights for the USas well as the Trump administration’s proposed Golden Dome missile defense system.
At the same timeThe New York Times On Wednesday, NATO officials announced that some officials had separately discussed a possible compromise in which the US would gain sovereignty over “small pockets of Greenland for military bases.”
On Thursday, Nielsen rejected that suggestion, while repeatedly noting that he had not been told what the Trump-Rutte structure meant.
“I don’t know exactly what’s in that deal,” he said. “But I know now that we have a high-level task force working on a bipartisan solution.”
“We have red lines” that cannot be crossed, Nielsen said. “We must respect our territorial integrity. We must respect international law and sovereignty.”
“Our integrity, our borders and international law is certainly a red line that we don’t want anyone to cross,” he added later in a press release. “And I don’t think that’s surprising at all.”
Nielsen said he believes the red lines sent to Rutte by Danish and Greenlandic officials recently were “delivered” to Trump.
But “there was nothing about a mineral resource agreement or anything else,” he said.
“Greenland is ready to negotiate with the US on economic and other issues, but we have to talk about it with mutual respect,” he added.
Nielsen also directly criticized the Trump administration’s aggression toward Greenland, including the recent escalation of tensions until Wednesday. The possibility of US military action.
“Certainly, the rhetoric we’ve heard over the past year is unacceptable to us,” he said, adding that it’s difficult to have a respectful dialogue when his fellow citizens “hear threats of buyouts and takeovers every night.”
“Imagine Greenlanders, like the peaceful people in Greenland, hearing and seeing every day in the media that someone wants to take away your freedom.”