US President-elect Donald Trump has said he would not rule out the use of military force to seize control of the Panama Canal and Greenland.
This has come as he declared US control of both to be vital to American national security. Speaking to reporters less than two weeks before he takes office on January 20 and as a delegation of aides and advisers that includes his son Donald Trump Jr is in Greenland, Mr Trump left open the use of the American military to secure both territories.
When asked if he would rule out the use of the military, he said: “I’m not going to commit to that. It might be that you’ll have to do something. The Panama Canal is vital to our country. We need Greenland for national security purposes.”
Greenland is an autonomous territory of Denmark, a long-time US ally and a founding member of Nato.
Mr Trump, a Republican, has floated the idea of having Canada join the United States. He said he would not use military force to do that, saying, he would rely on “economic force”.
Earlier, at a news conference at Mr Trump’s Florida estate Mar-a-Lago he said he would move to try to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America”, saying that has a “beautiful ring to it”.
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