Donald Trump threatens to retake Panama Canal – and makes fresh call for US to buy Greenland | US News

Donald Trump has threatened to retake management of the Panama Canal – accusing Panama of charging extreme charges to make use of the essential commerce passage and warning of potential Chinese language affect.

The US president-elect has additionally renewed his name for the US to purchase Greenland from Denmark.

In asserting Ken Howery as his ambassador to Denmark, Mr Trump wrote on Fact Social: “For functions of nationwide safety and freedom all through the World, the US of America feels that the possession and management of Greenland is an absolute necessity.”

However the island’s Prime Minister Mute Egede has hit again, insisting Greenland was not on the market.

Mr Egede stated: “Greenland is ours. We aren’t on the market and can by no means be on the market. We should not lose our lengthy wrestle for freedom.”

The world’s largest island, which sits between the Atlantic and Arctic oceans, is 80% coated by an ice sheet and is residence to a big US army base. Greenland gained autonomy from Denmark in 1979.

Mr Trump beforehand referred to as for the US to purchase the island throughout his first time period in workplace.

‘We’re being ripped off on the Panama Canal’

The president-elect’s outburst concerning the Panama Canal has additionally sparked a row with the chief of the Central American nation, who defended the canal’s independence.

Talking to a crowd in Arizona, Mr Trump stated he wouldn’t let the canal – which has been underneath Panamanian management for many years – fall into the “improper arms”.

“Has anybody ever heard of the Panama Canal?” Trump requested supporters at AmericaFest on Sunday.

“As a result of we’re being ripped off on the Panama Canal like we’re being ripped off in every single place else.”

A important waterway for world commerce, the canal connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and permits ships to keep away from prolonged and dangerous journeys across the southernmost tip of South America by chopping by the center of the Americas.

After the bold mission was opened in 1914, the canal and surrounding territory have been managed by the US till an settlement with Panama in 1977 paved the best way for it to return to full Panamanian management in 1999.

“It was given to Panama and the folks of Panama, but it surely has provisions,” Mr Trump stated. “If the rules, each ethical and authorized, of this magnanimous gesture of giving usually are not adopted, then we’ll demand that the Panama Canal be returned to us, in full, shortly and with out query.”

It isn’t clear how Mr Trump would go about reasserting US management over the canal.

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Panama’s President Jose Raul Mulino stated his nation’s independence was non-negotiable and that China had no affect on the canal’s administration.

China doesn’t management the canal however a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison Holdings has lengthy managed two ports on the canal’s Caribbean and Pacific entrances.

“Each sq. metre of the Panama Canal and the encompassing space belongs to Panama and can proceed belonging (to Panama),” Mr Mulino stated in his assertion, which was launched on social media.

Mr Trump then responded: “We’ll see about that!”

Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum expressed her help for Panama’s authorities after Mr Trump’s remarks.

“Certainly, the Panama Canal belongs to the Panamanians,” she throughout her common morning press convention.

The Panama Canal permits as much as 14,000 ships to cross annually and accounts for some 2.5% of world seaborne commerce.

In current weeks, Mr Trump has repeatedly mused about turning Canada right into a US state.