Denmark Trump wants US control over Greenland
US President-elect Donald Trump wants to incorporate Greenland into the USA.
23.12.2024, 09:11
SDA
"In the interest of national security and freedom in the world, the United States believes that ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity," Trump wrote on Sunday evening (local time) on the online platform Truth Social, which he co-founded.
In the post on Truth Social, Trump also named his new ambassador for Denmark: Ken Howery, co-founder of the US payment service provider Paypal and ambassador to Sweden during Trump's first term in office.
Trump already wanted to buy Greenland beforehand
There was initially no reaction from Denmark, to which the world's largest island belongs politically. Trump had already proposed buying Greenland during his first term of office. The answer from Denmark at the time was clear: no, thank you.
Greenland, with around 56,000 inhabitants, is largely autonomous. Due to its location in the Arctic, its proximity to Russia, its suspected mineral resources and an important US military base, the island is not only strategically important for the USA.
Interest in the Panama Canal too
At an event in the state of Arizona on Sunday, Trump also threatened to reclaim control of the Panama Canal. The canal connects the Atlantic with the Pacific and is one of the most important trade routes in the world. The USA built the major project at the beginning of the 20th century and controlled the area on both banks for decades afterwards. From 1979 onwards, control was gradually handed over to Panama, which took over the canal completely on December 31, 1999.
