Donald Trump refused Tuesday to rule out the idea of using force to annex the Panama Canal and Greenland, saying both were “very important to the economic security” of the United States.
“I can’t assure you on either one,” the president-elect said at a news conference at Mar-a-Lago, when asked about possible use of the armed forces to annex the canal, a vital artery of global maritime transport, and the autonomous territory of Denmark, after having repeatedly stated that it wanted to acquire them.
The sovereignty of the Panama Canal “is not negotiable,” Panamanian Foreign Minister Javier Martinez-Acha said on Tuesday, in response to annexation threats from US President-elect Donald Trump. “The president, José Raúl Mulino, has already declared that the sovereignty of our canal is not negotiable,” the minister said, adding that the canal was “an irreversible conquest.”
At the same press conference, Trump said on Tuesday that NATO member countries, including Luxembourg, must increase their defense budgets to 5% of their GDP. “They can all afford it,” said the Republican billionaire, who will take office on January 20. “They should be at 5%, not 2%.” The Grand Duchy aims to reach 2% by 2030.
Finally, the president-elect announced that upon his return to the White House, scheduled for January 20, the United States would change the name of the Gulf of Mexico, on the country’s southern coast, to the “Gulf of America “. “We’re going to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, which sounds good and covers a lot of territory. The Gulf of America, what a nice name,” declared the future American president.
