President-elect Trump repeats call to buy Greenland

2024-12-23 20:02:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

President-elect Trump repeats call to buy Greenland

President-elect of the USA, Donald Trump

The president-elect has repeated the request he made during his first term that the United States buy Greenland from Denmark. The request expands the list of allied countries with which he has disagreements before taking office on January 20.

In a statement on Sunday announcing the appointment of his ambassador to Denmark, Mr. Trump wrote that, "for the purposes of National Security and freedom throughout the world, the United States of America considers ownership and control of Greenland to be an absolute necessity." .

Before mentioning Greenland, Mr Trump had suggested over the weekend that the United States could retake control of the Panama Canal unless something is done to reduce rising shipping costs on the vital Atlantic-to-Ocean waterway. Peaceful.

He has also suggested that Canada become the 51st state of the United States and referred to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as the "governor" of the "great country of Canada".

Greenland, the world's largest island, is located between the Atlantic and Arctic oceans. Eighty percent of its territory is covered by a layer of ice. There is also a large US military base there. Greenland gained autonomy from Denmark in 1979 and its head of government, Múte Bourup Egede, said Mr Trump's recent calls to take over the island were as nonsense as those made in his first term.

"Greenland is ours. We are not for sale and we will never be for sale," he said in a statement. "We must not lose our long-standing fight for freedom."

President Donald Trump canceled his 2019 visit to Denmark after his offer to buy Greenland was rejected by Copenhagen.

He also suggested on Sunday that the United States is being "damaged" in the Panama Canal.

"If the moral and legal principles of the grand gesture of giving control of the Panama Canal are not followed, then we will demand that it be returned to the United States of America, fully, quickly and without question," he said.

The president of Panama, José Raul Mulino, responded in a video statement that "every square meter of the canal belongs to Panama and this will continue without change." Mr Trump responded on his social media page saying: "We'll see if that actually happens!"

The president-elect also posted a photo of an American flag placed in the canal area under the sentence: "Welcome to the United States Canal!"

The United States built the canal in the early 1900s, but returned control to Panama on December 31, 1999, under a treaty signed in 1977 by President Jimmy Carter.

The canal faced droughts in 2023, forcing it to significantly reduce the number of daily ship crossings. With fewer ships, administrators also raised fees to use the canal.

President-elect Trump also published a photo of himself on top of a mountain next to a Canadian flag alongside the caption "Canadians want Canada to become the 51st state (of the United States)".

Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau suggested Mr Trump was joking about annexing his country, but the pair recently met at Mr Trump's Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. The meeting was held after Mr Trump threatened to impose a 25% tariff on all Canadian goods./VOA