Andy Burnham has congratulated Denmark on its Greenland agreement with the United States, according to No 10 on Sunday.
The Prime Minister's Office said Andy Burnham spoke to the Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, on Sunday morning, and that the two leaders discussed "the forthcoming signing of a new deal to strengthen security in the Arctic and the North Atlantic area between the US, Greenland and Denmark this week".
The call comes days before Burnham is expected to meet Donald Trump face to face for the first time at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, where the three governments are due to sign the agreement. The Press Association reports that the two men have spoken by telephone at least twice since Burnham entered Downing Street in July.
In the readout, Downing Street said: "The Prime Minister congratulated Prime Minister Frederiksen and the Kingdom of Denmark on negotiating a deal benefiting the US, Greenland and Denmark, and said he would pass on his congratulations to President Trump."
The two leaders "welcomed the US' commitment to the region and underlined the strategic and shared importance of the High North for Euro-Atlantic security", according to the same document. The words are those of the No 10 spokesperson; Burnham has not commented publicly in his own words on the agreement.
Trump announced the deal in a post on Truth Social on Friday, saying the United States had entered into an agreement with Denmark and Greenland "that gives the United States permanent control over security, and all other needs, in Greenland, completely addressing ALL of our many U.S. concerns", as quoted by NBC News and Axios. He said a large American military presence would be developed on the island.
Copenhagen has described the same instrument in markedly different terms. In a translation published by UPI, Frederiksen said she was pleased there was the prospect of an agreement that "at the same time recognizes the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Kingdom and the right of the Greenlandic people to self-determination". Her office said the deal will be signed by all three governments at the General Assembly, and that parliamentary procedures are still required in Denmark and Greenland before it can enter into force.
The text of the agreement has not been released, and outlets including CNN and the fact-checking organisation PolitiFact have said it remains unclear how far it differs from the existing arrangement.
That gap has become the basis of the opposition attack in Britain. Speaking at a question-and-answer session with members at the Liberal Democrat conference on Sunday, the party's leader, Sir Ed Davey, said: "Donald Trump is trying to claim he's got a success in Greenland, but actually, all he's got is almost a carbon copy of the agreement that's persisted since the 1950s."
He added: "So let Donald Trump try to pretend he's had a victory. The truth is, Europe, Nato, countries like Canada stood up to him and won."
Davey also criticised the Prime Minister's approach to Washington, telling the Press Association: "There is a danger that the new prime minister could be Keir Starmer, but with just better social media, that's not going to help anybody, is it? We need to see some teeth in his relationship with the White House."
A Nato spokesperson said the alliance welcomed the deal and that it would "help advance security, stability and cooperation in this vital region", the BBC reported.
American forces have operated in Greenland under a defence agreement signed with Denmark on 27 April 1951 and amended at Igaliku in August 2004, the basis for the United States presence at Pituffik Space Base.
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