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U.S. Plans I: Greenlandic Officials Hopeful of U.S. Deal on Thule Base By David Ruppe U.S. State Department officials, however, said they are unwilling to revise the 1951 agreement, which allows the United States to operate an air base that includes a ballistic missile early warning radar station at Thule in northwest Greenland. “Our position is that we really don’t care to renegotiate with Denmark,” a spokesman said today. Greenland is a Danish territory that has had limited home rule since 1979, but Denmark continues to conduct its foreign policy. If the provincial government in Greenland had its way, the amended agreement would make Greenland an equal partner to it and would include compensation to local peoples for the U.S. presence there as well as arrangements on trade, the environment and other issues. “One of the basic problems we have with the American presence is, unlike any other country that plays host to the American base, we don’t get anything out of it at all,” according to a senior Greenland official. “We don’t get economic compensation, we don’t get trade. We don’t get anything,” the official said. While Denmark could agree to the upgrade without Greenland’s approval, there is opposition to that idea in the Danish Parliament. In addition, the pro-independence and -demilitarization government elected in Greenland this month might cause trouble for Copenhagen, possibly focusing attention on Denmark’s international reputation as strong advocate of indigenous peoples’ rights. The issue has gained national attention in Denmark and Greenland. The Bush administration considers the upgrade a key component for expanding the developing U.S. national missile defense system to address long-range ballistic missile threats that might emerge in the Middle East. In a meeting earlier this month with senior Greenlandic and Danish officials in Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell formally requested permission to upgrade radar capabilities at the Thule Air Base in the northwest corner of Greenland. Then, Powell signaled U.S. receptiveness to renegotiating the 1951 agreement, the senior Greenland official said in an interview. “The secretary of state said up until now the United States had been pretty pleased with the ’51 agreement and thought it would be a good framework,” said the official. “Who wouldn’t? The ’51 agreement basically gives away a large chunk of Greenland for American purposes with nothing in return,” the official said. Powell, though, “was open to the standpoint that it was signed in ’51 and we have had home rule since ’79 and so there were some constitutional problems there. He was open to looking into what could be done for amending the agreement to reflect Greenland’s wishes, which was an opening,” said the official. Josef Motzfeldt, who acts as Greenland’s foreign minister, issued the same conclusion in comments following the meeting, saying, “I am very satisfied that Greenland has now gotten promises to the effect that the U.S. is ready to discuss a reshaping of the defense agreement when the negotiations begin.” At a press conference just prior to that meeting, however, Powell indicated the opposite. “The defense agreement of 1951, I think, has stood us all in good stead and I don’t see a need to change or modify that agreement,” he said. “I should take note of the fact that over the last 50-odd years, as issues have come up we’ve been able to resolve those issues with memorandums of understanding or other ways of dealing with those issues other than changing the 1951 agreement.” Motzfeldt told Powell at the meeting that “renegotiation of ’51 agreement was a clear condition for any further talks, and two, that an upgrading of the Thule radar should in no way be a threat to world peace or give the start to a new arms race,” said the official. Greenlandic and Danish officials have said they are planning to put the U.S. request to a public and political debate before providing an answer in the spring. The Danish government is reportedly inclined to approve the U.S. request. Grievances The United States has operated an early warning missile detection base at Thule since the conclusion of the U.S.-Denmark defense agreement in 1951. Native groups have complained the agreement offered them nothing in exchange for the usurpation of tribal hunting grounds. They also fault the agreement for not addressing the environmental impact of the base and are critical of the 1968 crash of a U.S. plane carrying four nuclear weapons, which released plutonium into the environment. Official Danish policy at the time was there would be no nuclear weapons on Danish territory. Greenlandic officials also would like to see changes to the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972, the official said, which restricts imports of marine mammal products, including seal products, a major Greenland export, into the United States. It “means that we can’t even wear our coats when we visit the United States, because it is not legal to enter the United States wearing a sealskin coat,” the official said. Greenland reportedly also is seeking cooperation on fighting pollution in the Arctic and a student exchange program with the United States. In another part of the Arctic, the United States has begun compensating a local Alaskan community for disruption caused by the administration’s new missile defense plans. The Alaska town of Delta Junction, near the missile battery site at Fort Greely, is preparing to receive nearly $16 million in federal compensation this year that locals hope to spend on a new recreation center, small business loans, a high-tech library, local schools and city hall, according to local reports. The administration has offered Britain industrial participation in the multibillion-dollar missile defense development program in exchange for permission to upgrade radar at its Fylingdales base. No Coverage Greenland officials contend the U.S. missile defense system as currently planned would not protect either Greenland or Denmark, while making the territory a greater target for attacks. During their visit to Washington, the Greenlandic officials received a Pentagon briefing that showed Greenland would not be immediately covered by the U.S. missile defense system, because the Pentagon currently plans initially to place interceptor missiles in Alaska and California, too distant to protect Greenland, the official said. “They said that Greenland could only be covered if missiles were posted on the East Coast,” said the official. The upgraded Thule radar also would not provide surveillance coverage for Denmark from any missile threats in the Middle East, according to David Wright, a missile defense analyst with the Union of Concerned Scientists. “It wouldn’t be able to see attacks from the Middle East on Europe more generally,” he said. U.S. officials also have proposed basing interceptor missiles in Britain or elsewhere in Europe, as well as upgrading the Fylingdales radar, which experts say would extend coverage to much of Europe and Greenland as well as the United States.
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