US envoy says Washington should restore its footprint in Greenland

A US special envoy has said Washington should restore its "footprint" in Greenland, during a visit to Nuuk this week. Jeff Landry said the United States should "put its footprint back" on the Arctic territory and spoke of repopulating bases and increasing national security operations. His comments come amid renewed US interest in Greenland under President Donald Trump and ongoing tensions over the island's strategic role.

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Landry made the remarks in Greenland's capital, Nuuk, in his first visit since being appointed special envoy in December 2025. He said he believed the president was talking about increasing national security operations and repopulating certain bases in Greenland. Landry also said that people he had spoken to in Greenland would like to see the US repopulate those bases, and added that the territory "needs the US".

The US currently operates one base on the island, the Pituffik Space Base, which is the Department of Defense's northernmost installation. According to the US Space Force, the base is used for missile warning, missile defence and space surveillance missions. The row also noted that the US had 17 military facilities and more than 10,000 troops in Greenland at the height of the Cold War, underlining how much the American military presence has changed over time.

The comments matter because Greenland sits in a strategically important part of the Arctic, where military and space-related activity has become more significant. Trump has repeatedly argued that Washington needs to acquire the Danish territory to strengthen national defence and to stop it falling under the influence of Beijing or Moscow. That position has already drawn criticism from Greenlanders and Danish politicians, and Landry's latest remarks are likely to add to that debate.

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Landry's role has been controversial before. After his appointment in December, he said his goal was to make the island part of the US, prompting backlash in Greenland and Denmark. Denmark's foreign minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen was reported to have said he was "deeply upset" by the special envoy role and "particularly upset" by Landry's statements.

In January, the leaders of five political parties in Greenland's parliament issued a joint statement saying: "We do not want to be Americans, we do not want to be Danes; we want to be Greenlanders." What remains unclear is whether Landry's visit will lead to any concrete change in US policy or military posture on the island. The comments do not set out a timetable for any new bases or operations, and there has been no confirmation of any formal agreement with Greenland or Denmark. For now, the visit appears to reinforce the political sensitivity of Greenland's security status and the wider dispute over the territory's future.

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