Trump does not rule out using force to control the Panama Canal, Greenland

par Steve Holland et Joseph Ax

PALM BEACH, Florida (Reuters) – Donald Trump refused on Tuesday to rule out the possibility of military intervention or economic measures to regain control of the Panama Canal and obtain sovereignty over Greenland, as part of a project expansion of the United States that he has advocated since his electoral victory last November.

The American president-elect also declared that he planned to use “economic force” against Canada, while he repeated his dissatisfaction with the trade balance between the two neighbors, threatening Ottawa with significant customs taxes and evoking the theory of making Canada the 51st American state.

Two weeks before his formal return to the White House, Donald Trump also put forward the idea of ​​asking NATO allies for greater financial participation, after having regularly complained during his first presidential term that members of NATO The Alliance did not contribute sufficiently to the common defense budget.

During a disjointed press conference lasting about an hour, in Palm Beach, Florida, where he lives, he detailed the outlines of a foreign policy freeing itself from diplomatic considerations and ignoring the concerns of the United States’ allies.

Asked whether he would refrain from resorting to the army or economic coercion against Panama and Greenland, the man who was already in power in Washington between January 2017 and January 2021 responded in the negative.

“I cannot give you guarantees for these two (…) We need them for our economic security,” he declared.

Donald Trump, whose electoral victory last November against outgoing Democratic Vice-President Kamala Harris was certified by Congress on Monday, also criticized American purchases of Canadian products and the military support provided by Washington to Ottawa.

He described the border between the two countries as an “artificially drawn line”, after having again suggested the day before, in the wake of the announcement of the upcoming resignation of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, that Canada become the 51st state American.

“Never, ever, will Canada be part of the United States,” Justin Trudeau responded on Tuesday. “Workers and communities in our two countries benefit from being each other’s greatest trading and security partners.”

“IMPERIALISM”

Donald Trump has suggested that he would impose tariffs on Denmark if it refuses Trump’s offer to buy Greenland, a territory he says he considers vital to American national security.

He made the comments as his son Don Jr. had just arrived in Greenland for a private visit.

Copenhagen has said in the past, in response to comments by Donald Trump, that Greenland was not for sale.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Tuesday evening that it was “not a good way to move forward, to compete financially when we are close allies and partners.”

No comment was immediately obtained from the authorities of Panama, whose President José Raul Mulino has in the past rejected the idea of ​​handing over the canal to the United States.

Daniel Fried, a former diplomat and US ambassador who is now a member of the Atlantic Council think tank, described Donald Trump’s comments as “19th century imperialism”.

Annexing Greenland, he said, “would destroy NATO, because it would not make us any different from (Russian President) Vladimir Putin.”

During his press conference, the second since his victory in the presidential election on November 5, Donald Trump put forward the hypothesis that NATO member countries contribute 5% of their gross domestic product (GDP) to the budget of the Alliance – against a current target of 2%.

“I think NATO should get 5%. (Members) can all afford it,” he said.

According to NATO data, no member country allocates 5% of its GDP to defense – not even the United States. Poland is at the top of the “ranking” with a defense budget representing 4.12% of its GDP, ahead of Estonia (3.43%) and the United States (3.38%).

Donald Trump also expressed during the press conference his desire to rename the Gulf of Mexico to make it the “Gulf of America”. “What a wonderful name,” he added.

(Report by Steve Holland, with contributions from Daphne Psaledakis, Costas Pitas, Helen Coster, Timothy Reid, Doina Chiacu, Gram Slattery, Louise Rasmussen, Matt Spetalnick, Andrew Gray and Alexandra Ulmer; version française Jean Terzian)