COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - The United States and Greenland have agreed to strengthen economic and trade ties after resolving a dispute over a service contract to a U.S. air base in the north of the Arctic island. The Thule Air Base has been a sore point between the United States, Greenland and Denmark since the Pentagon in 2014 awarded a service contract to a U.S. company, breaking a decade-long agreement of keeping it in Danish-Greenlandic hands. After U.S. President Donald Trump’s rebuffed attempt to buy the island last year, the United States, in a renewed focus on the Arctic, set up a consulate in Greenland and also donated $12 million in aid towards developing the small economy. “The case is of great importance to Greenland in principle,” Greenland’s foreign minister, Steen Lynge, said in a joint statement between Greenland and Denmark released late on Wednesday.