U.S. Reaches Deal to Upgrade Radar in Greenland

By David Ruppe
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — Denmark and its territory Greenland have agreed to allow the United States to upgrade a radar in Greenland for use in the U.S. national missile defense, a key development in the Bush administration’s efforts to expand the planned system (see GSN, May 18).

The deal, approved by the Danish parliament today and expected to be formally signed this summer, appears to be a win-win-win-lose, respectively, for the United States, Greenland, Denmark, and the local Eskimos.

Improving the existing early warning radar at the U.S. Thule Air Base on the far northwest coast of Greenland would give the planned U.S. ballistic missile defense system a well-located, more-precise sensor for tracking long-range ballistic missiles launched from Southwest Asian countries, such as Iran.

The deal would require no direct financial compensation from the United States to Greenland, something originally sought by Greenlandic officials.

It would, though, revise the 1951 U.S.-Danish agreement on creation and use of the base to make Greenland’s Home Rule Government a signatory, according to a senior Home Rule official. That was a major issue with Greenlanders and something the Bush administration previously said it opposed (see GSN, Jan. 2, 2003).

“The ‘51 agreement has been a giant thorn in our side because it reflects Greenland as a colony. Now we’re an equal partner,” Greenland Deputy Foreign Minister Mikaela Engell said in a telephone interview.

Greenland could also gain tougher environmental restrictions at the base and surrounding area and potential U.S. cooperation on trade, technology, education and other issues, she said.

The Danish government gains influence from the agreement because the base “gives Denmark a card to play in the NATO game,” she said.

U.S. ambassador to Denmark Stuart Bernstein called the agreement “a win-win-win solution that both enhances our security and broadens the foundation for our partnership,” the Associated Press reported today.

The indigenous Eskimos of the Thule area, however, apparently get nothing directly from the deal and believe it could undercut their efforts to obtain compensation for being denied access to the base and a surrounding security zone. 

This week, 428 tribe members are expected to sue Denmark for compensation and access to the area, saying the 1951 deal was made without their consultation. The tribe had taken its case to the Danish Supreme Court and lost last November and is planning to present its case tomorrow at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

“They’re pissed off. They say they weren’t consulted,” said Jane George, a reporter for the weekly Nunatsiaq News based in Arctic Quebec.

Greenland’s Home Rule Government and its parliament last week approved the deal and the Danish parliament approved it today.

President George W. Bush is scheduled to meet with Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen tomorrow in Washington, though the White House has not listed missile defense as a major topic of discussion with its Iraq-war coalition partner.

Engell said all parties wanted to secure agreement on the deal before the Bush-Rasmussen meeting, “so it wouldn’t come up as an issue.”

The agreement is a key objective in the Bush administration’s efforts to construct a long-range, ground-based antiballistic missile system.

The administration plans to activate elements of the planned system on the western side of North America and in the Pacific this year, directed at an anticipated North Korean ICBM capability. 

A Southwest Asian ICBM capability is viewed as a more distant threat, with a flight-test worthy Iranian capability not anticipated for as many as five to 10 years from now, according to 2001 U.S. intelligence community estimates.

Nevertheless, the administration last year negotiated an arrangement with the United Kingdom to upgrade a U.S. radar at the Fylingdales air base (see GSN, Feb. 6, 2003) and in 2002 requested permission for the Thule upgrade. 

It reportedly also is negotiating with European countries to deploy an interceptor missile base for countering a potential Southwest Asian capability.

The deal has political significance for Greenland’s Home Rule Government, which has sought independence from Denmark and until now has had no authority to conduct foreign relations.

In the future, the United States would have to negotiate additional agreements with Greenland and Denmark if it wants to add missile defense capabilities, Greenlandic officials said.

“This is not sort of a carte blanche to start building missiles. … If the United States should want to upgrade the radar again or build a new X-band radar it would require a new request,” Engell said.

The Pentagon, though, rebuffed appeals for compensation, Engell said.

“We pushed as hard as we could but the message we got at that point was that the Pentagon would rather look for a solution that was poor technically and more expensive than to actually cough up money, real money,” she said.

“When we started pushing really hard, suddenly Canada popped up as a possibility for a site,” she said.

In exchange for allowing the upgrade, Greenland would gain U.S. collaboration on issues such as energy, technology, tourism, infrastructure, education and scientific research, and Greenlanders would have access to previously unavailable scholarships in the United States, Engell said.

“It doesn’t give us a stack of dollars right away, but it gives us partnerships,” she said.

George said Greenland is “hoping to get contracts from the construction of the upgraded radar system.”

In addition, the 1951 agreement would be revised to remove a restriction against direct contact between the indigenous population and the base personnel, Engell said. 

The agreement also would require the United States to adhere to the toughest environmental restrictions at the base, either U.S. or Greenlandic, and would permit Greenlandic inspections, she said. 

“The environment has been an enormous concern of ours. We really had no insight into what was going on,” she said.

The Air Force base, 750 miles north of the Arctic Circle, hosts an early warning radar and space surveillance operations. The surrounding Thule Defense Area is approximately 287 square miles, slightly more than four times the size of the District of Columbia.

The United States also agreed to conclude a status-of-forces agreement with Greenland, a common arrangement for defining the legal status of U.S. personnel and property in a foreign country and the authority of a host government on matters of criminal and civil jurisdiction, she said.

“What we wanted was an agreement comparable with others around the world,” Engell said.

While the Home Rule Government considered local concerns that the missile defense radar would make Thule a bigger target for U.S. adversaries, Engell said there was a conclusion that the site generally would not add risk.

“Who knows if missile defense is going to work at all?” she said.

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