AFR Dundas

25.09.02

The Danish Prime Minister and the Premier of the Greenland Home Rule Government announce:

DUNDAS

After several years of negotiations, there has now been a breakthrough in the negotiations between Denmark, Greenland and the USA regarding the Dundas locality in Greenland.

Dundas, which for almost 50 years has been part of Thule Air Base in North Western Greenland, will shortly be returned to Greenland/Denmark. Negotiators from Greenland, Denmark and the USA have settled the last details which are to regulate the return of the area and the parties’ respective obligations after the return of Dundas.

'I am extremely satisfied with the text that will solve a political problem between the USA, Denmark and Greenland,' says Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen. 'The return of the area to Greenland will fulfil a big wish for normalisation of the relations between Thule Air Base and the Greenland people.'

The Premier of the Greenland Home Rule Government is also satisfied. 'The Home Rule Government welcomes the coming agreement. We will now have access to the area from which the Thule population was moved in 1953. It is a day of joy for the Home Rule Government and a victory for Greenland.'

The Danish Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Premier of the Greenland Home Rule Government will now inform the Danish Parliament and the Greenland Parliament about the matter.

The agreement is expected to be signed later this year in Nuuk.

The Prime Minister’s Office and the Greenland Home Rule Government, 24 September 2002.