WASHINGTON, Dec 25 : US President-elect Donald Trump is serious about buying Greenland and the Panama Canal, as he believes the US to be an empire that will collapse if it does not grow, sources have told the New York Post newspaper.
“Trump is of the belief that empires that don’t grow start to fail. He is a student of history, and this is one of the schools of thought… He really favors past presidents who were expansionist on the continent. He knows it’s a legacy item that cannot be distorted or taken away by political opposition,” one source close to the incoming US leader said, while another added that he is “100% serious” on the matter.
Moreover, during Trump’s previous term, his administration actually addressed the issue, including determining ways for the purchase to happen and identifying assets possibly used in the transactions, sources said.
“We were moving quickly on these things up until the final days… Our hope was the Biden administration would pick up on this. We were poised to do something,” former Treasury Department official Thomas Dans told the newspaper, adding that the key for the plan was to get the approval of Greenland’s people.
He also said that the most likely way for the transaction to happen is through a compact of free association.
The acquisition of Greenland, now part of Denmark, if it happened, would be the largest acquisition in the history of the US, topping even the Louisiana deal of 1803, which doubled the territory of the country at that time.
On Monday, Trump called it “an absolute necessity” for the United States to own Greenland, thus commenting on his decision to appoint a new US ambassador to Denmark. Later in the day, Greenland Prime Minister Mute Egede responded to it, saying that the island is not for sale.
On Sunday, the president-elect said that he would demand a quick return of the Panama Canal to US ownership due to high fees for its passage. The politician said that the Panama Canal was critically important for US trade, as well as for the rapid deployment of US Navy forces in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. He added that the United States was the largest user of the canal, providing over 72% of all passage through it.
Commenting on Trump’s statement on Sunday, Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino said that the country’s sovereignty was non-negotiable and that the Panama Canal fully belonged to Panama under the 1977 treaty.
(UNI)
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