US In Closely Guarded Talks To Open New Bases In Greenland

US officials are seeking to open three new bases in the south of the territory, a semi-autonomous part of Denmark, as they work to resolve a diplomatic crisis sparked by President Donald Trump when he threatened to seize Greenland by force.

Trump said in January that the US should "own" Greenland to prevent Russia or China from taking it. He said this could happen the "easy way " or "the hard way".

The White House confirmed the administration was engaged in high-level talks with Greenland and Denmark, but declined to comment on details of the negotiations.

A White House official told the BBC the administration was very optimistic the talks were headed in the right direction.

Denmark has previously expressed a willingness to discuss additional American military bases on the island, and its foreign ministry confirmed talks with the US were taking place. "There is an ongoing diplomatic track with the United States. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will not go into further detail at this time," a spokesperson said.

Later, speaking at a democracy summit in Copenhagen on Tuesday, Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said negotiations with the US had "taken some steps in the right direction".

Nielsen said the conversations were "ongoing" and that he could not go into details.

US officials have floated an arrangement in which the three new military bases would be formally designated as US sovereign territory, according to one source with knowledge of the negotiations.

The bases would be in southern Greenland and primarily focus on surveillance of potential Russian and Chinese maritime activity in an area of the northern Atlantic between Greenland, Iceland and the United Kingdom known as the GIUK Gap, the officials who spoke to the BBC said.

The two sides have not formally agreed to anything yet and the final number of bases could change, the sources said. One of the new bases would likely be located in Narsarsuaq, on the site of a former US military base that housed a small airport.

Any other new military bases would likely also be located on sites in Greenland that have existing infrastructure such as airfields or ports, which could be upgraded at a lower cost than building new facilities, analysts said.

US officials have not raised the possibility during talks of somehow seizing control of Greenland, something that has been publicly rejected by Denmark and the Nato military alliance of which it is a member.

Despite Trump's threats, the countries have been actively working towards a deal in recent months.

The talks have been confined to a small working group of officials in Washington who have made headway negotiating outside of the spotlight while the administration has been consumed by the war in Iran.

General Gregory Guillot, the head of US Northern Command, gave a broad sense of the negotiations during congressional testimony in March. He said the US was seeking to open new bases, but the sources close to the talks described new details that paint a picture of regular high-level meetings that have progressed in recent months.

The delicate diplomatic effort is being led by Michael Needham, a senior state department official who has been tasked with crafting a deal that satisfies Trump while also respecting Denmark's redlines around protecting its borders.

"Needham is running point" on Greenland, said a senior diplomat with knowledge of the talks, using a military idiom to describe Needham's leadership role.

Behind the scenes, the person said, the administration is "approaching it very professionally".

The teams have met at least five times since mid-January. Needham is usually accompanied by one or two US officials from the state department or National Security Council, several sources said. His counterparts in the room include Jesper Møller Sørensen, Denmark's ambassador to the US, and Jacob Isbosethsen, the top Greenlandic diplomat in Washington.