{"id":298298,"date":"2026-01-22T20:55:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T20:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/298298\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T20:55:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T20:55:09","slug":"trumps-greenland-deal-could-be-modelled-on-cyprus-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/298298\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s Greenland deal could be modelled on Cyprus \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The United States<\/a> and Denmark <\/a>are reported to be considering a deal on Greenland<\/a> which is modelled on the agreement surrounding the UK\u2019s sovereign military bases in Cyprus<\/a>. <\/p>\n

On Wednesday, US president Donald Trump retreated from his demand that the US must own Greenland<\/a> when he announced that a framework agreement on the issue has been agreed with Nato. <\/p>\n

Two unidentified officials told the New York Times that discussions in Brussels have focused on granting US sovereignty over military bases on Greenland rather than the entire island.<\/p>\n

Following a 1955-1959 struggle for liberation from Britain, Cyprus emerged as an independent state in August 1960 with Britain, Greece and Turkey serving as guarantor powers. A condition of independence was that Britain would retain two strategic sovereign British bases on the island, at Akrotiri and Dhekelia. <\/p>\n

Their combined area amounts to 3 per cent of the island\u2019s territory (256 sq km). The bases have performed key roles in communications and intelligence-gathering in the Eastern Mediterranean. <\/p>\n

While partially integrated with local communities and economies, the bases remain separate political entities although they merge with the territory of the republic and no passports are required for people to enter them. <\/p>\n

The bases cannot expand or engage in non-military activities. The administration reports directly to the ministry of defence in London.<\/p>\n

US air force personnel have been stationed for decades in the base at Akrotiri from which operations in Syria, Gaza, Lebanon, Iran and Yemen have been mounted. Akrotiri has also been used by the US for refuelling aircraft for reconnaissance during regional tensions, including Israel\u2019s campaign in Gaza.<\/p>\n

The bases have been criticised by Greek and Turkish Cypriots because Britain did not meet its obligation as guarantor to intervene in 1974, when the Greek military junta mounted a coup against the government of president Makarios and Turkey responded by invading and occupying the north of the island. <\/p>\n

During the hostilities, most Greek Cypriots left the north while Turkish Cypriots relocated there to become the majority community. <\/p>\n

Despite fitful reunification negotiations and European Union membership in 2004, Cyprus remains divided with the British bases intact. Greek Cypriot nationalists want them to be dismantled.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The United States and Denmark are reported to be considering a deal on Greenland which is modelled on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298299,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,36977,356,13,14,17768,6,11,12,15,16,5,7,8,107,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-298298","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-cyprus","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-featured-news","13":"tag-featurednews","14":"tag-greenland","15":"tag-headlines","16":"tag-latest-news","17":"tag-latestnews","18":"tag-main-news","19":"tag-mainnews","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-top-stories","22":"tag-topstories","23":"tag-us","24":"tag-world","25":"tag-world-news","26":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115940748402324392","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}