Washington: US President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday did not rule out the use of the military to bring Panama Canal and Greenland under American control, which he argued is of great economic and strategic significance to the United States.
“I’m not going to commit to that. Now it might be that you’ll have to do something,” Trump told reporters at Mar-a-Lago in Florida. He was asked if he would use the military to gain control of both the Panama Canal and Greenland.
“Look, the Panama Canal is vital to our country, it’s being operated by China, China. And we gave the Panama Canal to Panama, we didn’t give it to China,” Trump said. Giving the Panama Canal to Panama for just one dollar by former President Jimmy Carter, he argued, was a very big mistake.
“Giving the Panama Canal to Panama was a very big mistake. We lost 38,000 people. It cost us the equivalent of USD 1 trillion, maybe more than that, probably the most expensive structure if we call it a structure, which I guess you can ever build. Giving that away was a horrible thing,” he said.
Trump said the US needs Greenland for national security purposes. “I’ve been told that for a long time, long before I even ran. I mean people have been talking about it for a long time. You have approximately 45,000 people there.
People don’t even know if Denmark has any legal right to it, but if they do, they should give it up because we need it for national security,” Trump asserted.
“That’s for the free world. I’m talking about protecting the free world. You don’t even need binoculars, you look outside, and you have China ships all over the place. You have Russian ships all over the place. We’re not letting that happen. We’re not letting it happen. If Denmark wants to get to a conclusion — but nobody knows if they even have any right title or interest,” he said.
“The people are going to probably vote for independence or to come into the United States. But if they do that, then I would tariff Denmark at a very high level,” he said. Trump said he has not drawn up a plan for acquisition of Greenland yet.
Hawaii was the last territorial acquisition of the United States. It was admitted as the 50th State on August 21, 1959. Alaska, the largest US State, was admitted as the 49th State on January 3, 1959. On New Year's Eve, Greenland’s Prime Minister Múte Egede expressed his desire to obtain independence from Denmark.
“The Greenlandic people’s opportunity for independence has been adopted through the provisions of the Self-Government Act, thereby creating a legal basis for how independence can be achieved,” Egede said on the eve of the New Year celebrations.
“A draft constitution for our country has also been prepared. Work has already begun concerning creating the framework for Greenland as an independent state within the possibilities and provisions of the Self-Government Act,” he said.
