USA’s Military Force on the Table!
Miami, US, Jan 7 (EFE). –
United States President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday did not rule out the use of military force to regain control of the Panama Canal, again accusing the Central American country of imposing excessive passage fees on US ships.
At a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, reporters asked Trump if he would rule out military or economic coercion to regain control of the Panama Canal and the island of Greenland.
“No, I can’t assure you on either of those two. But I can say this, we need them for economic security,” Trump asserted.
His comments on Greenland come after the president-elect’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, arrived in Greenland on Tuesday morning, amid growing speculation that the future US administration may seek to acquire the island, a self-governing territory under Danish administration, where the United States has a strategic military base for influence at the North Pole.
On the Panama Canal, Trump argued during the press conference: “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 again criticized the late former President Jimmy Carter’s (1977-1981) decision to transfer control of the canal to Panama during his administration.
Trump called this decision a “big mistake” and stated that in his opinion it was one of the reasons why Carter lost re-election in the 1980 elections, in a context marked by the US hostage crisis at the US embassy in Tehran.
Trump has previously said he will seek to regain control of the canal once he takes office, an idea that the Panamanian government has flatly rejected.
However, the president-elect has not explained how he would persuade a sovereign nation and ally of Washington to cede control of its territory and key infrastructure.
When asked by reporters whether he would consider economic measures, military measures, or renegotiating treaties, Trump simply replied, “I can’t assure you on either of those two. But I can tell you this, we need it for economic security. The Panama Canal was built for our military,” Trump said.
During his remarks, Trump also promised to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America and vowed to change the name of Denali, the highest mountain peak in North America, back to Mount McKinley. EFE bpm/mcd
