Trump signs US-Denmark-Greenland agreement to bolster Arctic security

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — President Donald Trump has signed an agreement with Denmark and Greenland aimed at strengthening Arctic and North Atlantic security, easing tensions over his repeated calls for Greenland to become part of the United States.

The signing Tuesday on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York comes days after Trump announced the deal to bolster U.S. military presence on the vast, icy island but keep it under Danish control. The governments provided few details of the agreement before the signing.

“This is tremendous for Europe and for the United States and for everybody,” Trump said just before the agreement was signed. “And for Greenland, it's going to be incredible.”

For months, Trump has expressed his desire for Greenland to become part of the United States and issued threats to seize the semiautonomous territory from Denmark, a NATO ally. On Tuesday, he did not respond to questions about whether a U.S. acquisition of Greenland was off the table.

Officials from the U.S., Greenland and Denmark negotiated for months behind the scenes, searching for solutions to address some of Trump’s security concerns about the mineral-rich island.

Trump's designs on Greenland strained relations within NATO, with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen warning a U.S. takeover would amount to the end of the Atlantic alliance.

The standoff unsettled many of Greenland's roughly 56,000 people and drove a wedge between the U.S. and Denmark and its European Union partners, who stepped up security exercises on and monetary support for the island.

Trade and hopes for a resource grab have all factored into concerns about Greenland’s future: About two-thirds of its territory sits inside the Arctic Circle, where melting sea ice has opened additional shipping routes

The United States was prominent in Greenland for decades but, since 1945, the U.S. military presence in Greenland has decreased from thousands of soldiers on 17 bases and installations to roughly 200 soldiers on the remote Pituffik Space Base in the northwest. The base supports missile warning, missile defense and space surveillance operations for the U.S. and NATO.

Addressing the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday morning, Trump provided a small window into details of the deal.

“We will immediately begin the process of developing a large military presence in the appropriate locations,” he said, including “building two very major military bases.”

Denmark’s parliament approved a bill last year to allow U.S. military bases on Danish soil, widening a 2023 military agreement made with the Biden administration that gave U.S. troops broad access to air bases in Denmark.

Trump previously insisted the U.S. needed to “take Greenland,” to prevent Russia or China from doing the same. Though Trump said he would rather “ make a deal ” for the territory, he added: “one way or the other, we’re going to have Greenland.”

Mikkel Runge Olesen, a senior researcher at the Danish Institute of International Studies, said Greenland and Denmark come away from the deal with the possibility of “ending the crisis without compromising on sovereignty,” while the U.S. gets a “somewhat more favorable” deal than under the existing defense treaty.

But relations overall between the U.S., Denmark and Greenland “are likely to be haunted by this long after Trump leaves office, and the crisis is likely to have significant and lasting negative impact on transatlantic relations more generally,” he said. “The lost trust will take decades to rebuild.”

Frederiksen said Tuesday that the deal being signed was a “deal that can last forever,” labelling it as good for the U.S., Greenland, Denmark and the broader NATO alliance.

“Mr. President, you have been very clear: You don't want adversaries to come too close,” she said. “I fully agree.”

Jens-Frederik Nielsen, Greenland’s prime minister, called it “a win-win-win agreement.”

“Your security is our security, and our security is your security,” he said Tuesday.

Associated Press writer Seung Min Kim contributed to this report from Washington.

Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, Greenland's Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen, left, and US President Donald Trump at the signing ceremony of a security deal between the U.S., Denmark and Greenland at United Nations headquarters, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026. (Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)

President Donald Trump signs a security agreement with Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenland's Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen during the United Nations General Assembly, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026, at the UN headquarters. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

President Donald Trump signs a security agreement with Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenland's Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen during the United Nations General Assembly, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026, at the UN headquarters. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, center, Greenland's Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen, right, and US President Donald Trump at the signing ceremony of a security deal between the U.S., Denmark and Greenland at United Nations headquarters, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026. (Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)

The room for the signing ceremony of a security deal between the U.S., Denmark and Greenland at United Nations headquarters, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026. (Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)

United States President Donald Trump speaks during the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly at United Nations headquarters, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian missiles and drones struck at least four Ukrainian regions overnight, killing five people, officials said Tuesday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country’s forces had damaged two more Russian oil refineries in their latest long-range strikes.

The continuing exchange of aerial attacks, even as front-line positions remain largely unchanged, provided the backdrop for Zelenskyy’s visit to the United States.

U.S. President Donald Trump has called on Zelenskyy to halt strikes on Russian oil refineries and other infrastructure used to produce and distribute diesel, saying the attacks are contributing to global shortages and higher prices. The supply crunch has also been aggravated by reduced oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz following the outbreak of the Iran war.

Kyiv began targeting Russian refineries after Moscow repeatedly attacked Ukraine’s power grid. Zelenskyy has offered to halt Ukraine’s strikes if Russia ends its attacks on energy infrastructure.

Zelenskyy was scheduled to meet Trump and other world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly in New York. He is seeking their help to end Russia’s more than 4½-year-old full-scale invasion.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin is not due to attend the annual event.

The war, which Western officials say has killed more than 500,000 Russian troops, has had global repercussions. Western analysts estimate that Ukraine has recorded more than 500,000 military casualties, including up to 140,000 deaths.

Zelenskyy also wants help to ensure the flow of Ukrainian grain and other farm products to world markets through the Black Sea. Russian attacks on cargo vessels have severely disrupted Kyiv’s exports, hurting its economy and threatening global supplies.

Russia and Ukraine have in recent years accounted for around 30% of the world’s wheat exports and 12% of corn exports, most of it shipped through the Black Sea. But last month, attacks slashed both countries’ agricultural exports by two-thirds, Thomas de Waal of the Brussels-based think tank Carnegie Europe said in a report Tuesday.

“The lack of that grain in world markets puts several African countries at risk of famine, while world cereal prices, already pushed up by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, could rise even higher,” he said.

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday that France would provide Ukraine with additional radar systems to help protect its power grid.

Macron said in a social media post that he had discussed with Trump a possible truce between Moscow and Kyiv that would halt strikes on energy infrastructure, as well as a “moratorium” on attacks in the Black Sea.

Zelenskyy began his visit to New York by meeting with U.S. senators. He thanked them for what he described as strong bipartisan support for Ukraine and for backing a tougher sanctions bill against Russia that Trump signed into law.

Peace and security would be closer once the legislation was fully implemented, Zelenskyy said.

He said on social media that he had briefed senators on de-escalation proposals he planned to discuss with Trump later Tuesday.

In Kyiv, Iryna Panina awoke around 2 a.m. on Tuesday as a jet-powered Russian drone approached her home. The blast shattered a window and left her apartment covered in debris.

Panina, 36, said she had lost hope in international efforts to secure peace.

“As an ordinary person just trying to live and survive each day, I find it hard to believe they fully understand what’s actually happening, how hard it is, and how much ordinary people are suffering,” she told The Associated Press.

Zelenskyy also planned to press Trump for more U.S.-made Patriot air defense systems, which Kyiv says it urgently needs to intercept Russian ballistic missiles.

Zelenskyy said that Ukrainian special forces struck the Kuibyshev oil refinery in Samara, southeast of Moscow, and another refinery in the neighboring Bashkortostan region in overnight attacks.

One person was killed and four others were wounded in the Samara attack, regional Gov. Vyacheslav Fedorishchev said. He said that “the enemy targeted industrial facilities,” but didn’t specify which ones.

The Russian Defense Ministry on Tuesday said that its forces downed 297 Ukrainian drones over 14 Russian regions overnight, as well as the illegally annexed Crimean Peninsula.

Russia’s overnight attack on Ukraine included anti-ship missiles, ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and more than 200 drones, Ukraine’s air force said.

The strikes killed four people in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro, said Oleksandr Hanzha, head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration. A drone also killed a woman in the northern Sumy region, local police said.

The strikes across Ukrainian regions damaged homes, businesses and storage facilities, wounding at least five people, authorities said. Five people were wounded in the capital, Kyiv, according to officials.

The Russian Defense Ministry said Tuesday that its forces struck metallurgical and chemical industries, the fuel and energy sector, and the military-industrial complex, as well as port infrastructure facilities in four regions of Ukraine.

They included a Fire Point plant in Kyiv producing components for long-range cruise missiles and a tobacco factory in the central Poltava region used to make small arms ammunition, it said.

Barry Hatton reported from Lisbon, Portugal. AP reporters Volodymyr Yurchuk and Srdjan Nedeljkovic in Kyiv, Ukraine, contributed to this report.

Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Oleksii, a Ukrainian war veteran, clears broken glass inside an apartment building damaged by a Russian drone strike in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Oleksii, a Ukrainian war veteran, clears broken glass inside an apartment building damaged by a Russian drone strike in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Services on Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026, a rescue worker put out a fire of a infrastructure facility damaged after a Russian strike on Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Services on Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026, a building is seen damaged after a Russian strike on Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)