French President Emmanuel Macron has welcomed a new security agreement between the United States, Denmark and Greenland, saying it helps ease months of tensions over the strategically important Arctic island while reaffirming Danish sovereignty.

Speaking during a visit to the French territory of Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the North Atlantic, Macron said the agreement represented a positive outcome because Denmark’s sovereignty and international law had been respected.

The comments followed months of tension between Washington and Copenhagen after US President Donald Trump repeatedly argued that control of Greenland was essential to American national security.

The United States, Denmark and Greenland announced on Friday that they had reached an agreement allowing Washington to develop a significant military presence on the island while preventing US adversaries from establishing military bases there.

Trump described the arrangement in broader terms, saying the United States would have permanent authority to take measures necessary for the security of Greenland and the US. He also said hostile countries would be prevented from making sensitive investments without American approval.

Denmark and Greenland, however, have stressed that the agreement does not transfer sovereignty to Washington.

Danish and Greenlandic officials said Greenland would remain within the Kingdom of Denmark and that the island’s right to self determination would be respected. Key details of the agreement have yet to be published, including the eventual scale of the expanded American military presence and whether Washington would receive any formal authority over areas such as foreign policy or natural resources.

The agreement is expected to be formally signed around next week’s United Nations General Assembly and may still require parliamentary approval.

Months of tension over Greenland

Greenland is a self governing territory within the Kingdom of Denmark and occupies a strategically important position between North America and Europe.

The United States already operates the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland under longstanding defence arrangements with Denmark. The island has taken on greater strategic significance as competition in the Arctic intensifies and Washington focuses on potential Russian and Chinese activity in the region.

Trump’s repeated statements about acquiring Greenland had caused one of the most serious recent disputes between NATO allies.

European leaders, including Macron, had publicly defended Denmark’s territorial integrity. In a joint statement earlier this year, Macron and the leaders of Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and Britain said Arctic security should be pursued collectively through NATO while respecting sovereignty, territorial integrity and existing borders.

The new agreement appears to have reduced those tensions without changing Greenland’s formal status.

NATO has welcomed the arrangement, while Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said Copenhagen hoped it would end months of uncertainty surrounding the island.

Macron responds to Trump map

Macron also used his visit to Saint Pierre and Miquelon to respond to a controversial map previously posted by Trump that depicted a much larger area of North America under the US flag.

Saint Pierre and Miquelon, a small French archipelago near the Canadian coast, appeared within the area covered by the image.

Macron said there was no question over the territory’s status, stressing that Saint Pierre and Miquelon is French.

“We are not going to reaffirm it every morning because people have strange ideas or say strange things,” Macron said after arriving in the territory on Saturday.

The two day presidential visit has a wider geopolitical dimension. Macron is also due to meet Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in Saint Pierre and Miquelon, the first such meeting in the territory’s history.

Macron’s remarks on Greenland suggest that Paris now sees the agreement as a way of reducing the dispute inside NATO, provided the final arrangement continues to respect Danish sovereignty and Greenlanders’ right to determine their political future.

The precise balance of authority between Washington, Copenhagen and Nuuk, however, will remain unclear until the full terms of the agreement are made public.