BERLIN: German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Tuesday criticized Donald Trump’s “unacceptable” pledge to seize the Panama Canal, which the returning US president repeated in his inaugural address.
Baerbock was asked in an interview about Trump’s comments Monday on the waterway and on his desire to control Greenland, an autonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark.
“Any threat against a NATO member or other states is of course completely unacceptable,” Baerbock told German broadcaster RBB.
Baerbock however said that Germany needed to “play it smart,” when responding to the president’s statements.
“It’s not about how President Trump says something... but we should look at why he says something,” Baerbock said.
The focus should be on “what interests are behind (Trump’s statements) ... and then standing up for our own interests,” she said.
In the case of the Panama Canal, the message was about China “investing massively in ports and other important infrastructure around the world,” Baerbock said.
In his inaugural address on Monday, Trump complained that China was effectively “operating” the key trading route, which the United States transferred to Panamanian control in 1999.
“We didn’t give it to China, we gave it to Panama. And we’re taking it back,” Trump said.
It was not the first time that Trump has expressed his intention to reestablish US control over the canal, with the president repeatedly refusing to rule out using military means.
Germany has no illusions about Trump as he begins his second term in office, Baerbock said.
“The USA is one of our most important allies. We want to and will continue to work closely together,” she said.
“But we have positioned ourselves more intensively and even more strongly strategically.”
Germany calls Trump’s vow to take Panama Canal ‘unacceptable’
https://arab.news/gm8us
Germany calls Trump’s vow to take Panama Canal ‘unacceptable’
- ‘Any threat against a NATO member or other states is of course completely unacceptable’
- ‘It’s not about how President Trump says something... but we should look at why he says something’
Trump says school strike that killed 150 people ‘done by Iran’
- Tehran has blamed the US for the strike, which happened in southern Iran’s Hormozgan province on Feb. 28
ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE: President Donald Trump on Saturday blamed Iran for what the country’s authorities said was a deadly strike on a school in the southern town of Minab, in Hormozgan province.
“We think it was done by Iran. Because they are very inaccurate, as you know, with their munitions. They have no accuracy whatsoever,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.
According to Iranian authorities, a strike hit a girls’ elementary school last Saturday, killing more than 150 people, mostly students.
Israel and the United States have not claimed responsibility for the reported attack — with US officials saying it remains under investigation — while Iran has blamed Washington for the strike.
AFP has neither been able to access the site in order to verify the incident, nor to obtain independent confirmation of a toll.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Friday they had targeted a US base in the UAE that they alleged had been used as a launchpad for the strike.
“Al-Dhafra air base, belonging to American terrorists in the region, was targeted using drones and precision missiles,” the Guards said in a statement broadcast on state TV.
The Pentagon has confirmed it is investigating, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said the US would “not deliberately target a school.”
The New York Times newspaper reported Thursday that US military statements indicating forces were attacking naval targets near the Strait of Hormuz, where a Revolutionary Guards’ base is located, “suggest they were most likely to have carried out the strike.”
An analysis of social media posts from the time of the attack, as well as photos and videos from witnesses, indicated that the school had been struck at the same time as Guards’ naval base sites, the Times said.
