NATO, Gaza and Greenland: Key takeaways from Trump’s news conference

Donald Trump, the president-elect of the United States, has sparked international leaders’ fury by highlighting his reckless foreign policy plans.

Speaking to reporters from his Mar-a-Lago estate in a wide-ranging media conference late on Tuesday, two weeks before he takes the reins at the White House, Trump made startling claims regarding NATO and Ukraine’s potential membership, Israel’s war on Gaza, and Greenland, Canada and the Panama Canal.

Many people believe it’s highly debatable how serious some of the outrageous ideas he put forth might prove, as was the case during Trump’s first term. However, that hasn’t stopped the world’s media from taking the bait.

Here are key takeaways and some early responses:

NATO and Ukraine

Trump said he sympathized with Russia’s claim that Ukraine should not be a NATO member.

“A big part of the problem is, Russia – for many, many years, long before Putin – said, ‘ You could never have NATO involved with Ukraine. ‘ Now, they’ve said that. That’s been, like, written in stone”, Trump said.

“And somewhere along the line, Biden said, ‘ No. They ought to be able to enlist in NATO. Well, then Russia has somebody right on their doorstep, and I could understand their feelings about that”.

Since the 2008 summit in Bucharest, Biden and other North Atlantic Treaty Organization members have publicly supported Ukraine’s eventual membership.

Trump has also repeatedly argued that the US could re-engage with NATO if they don’t raise their game and that Washington’s NATO partners aren’t spending enough money on defense.

Most European members have recently moved to raise their spending to 2 percent of GDP, NATO’s current minimum recommendation. However, Trump demanded a massive hike on Tuesday, calling for spending of 5 percent.

Middle Eastern tensions are high

If Hamas and Israel don’t reach a release agreement by the time Trump takes office, “hell will break out,” Trump predicted.

“It will not be good for Hamas, and it will not be good, frankly, for anyone”, he said.

Trump was ambiguous about the US’s involvement in Syria. “I won’t tell you that, because that’s part of a military strategy”, he said.

Acquiring Canada

While the president-elect ruled out using military force against Canada, he threatened to use “economic force” against Ottawa, having late last year suggested that Canada should become the 51st US state.

He described the border as “artificially drawn” with the US’s northern neighbor.

Canadian reaction to Trump’s remarks was swift. In a post on X, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated, “There isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that Canada would enlist in the United States.”

combining the Panama Canal and Greenland

The newly elected president-elect refrained from using US military might to advance his goals in terms of Greenland and the Panama Canal.

“I’m not going to commit to that”, Trump said, when asked if he would rule out the use of the military. “It might be that you’ll have to do something. The Panama Canal is vital to our country”. He added, “We need Greenland for national security purposes”.

Since the US and the US split up to control the strategic waterway in 1999, the eponymous nation has remained in complete control of the Panama Canal.

Panama’s government on Wednesday flatly rejected Trump’s vision.

“The sovereignty of our canal is non-negotiable”, Foreign Minister Javier Martinez-Acha said at a press conference. He continued, stating that Panamanians are the only ones in charge of the canal and that this will continue to be the case.

Trump argued that the US needed Greenland for “national security purposes” and that the country was an autonomous nation of Danish ally for decades.

Trump was warned against “threatening the sovereign borders” of the European Union on Wednesday.

Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told France Inter radio, “There is no question that the EU will permit other nations in the world, whoever they may be, to attack its sovereign borders.”

Source: Aljazeera