Kremlin is watching Trump closely over his Greenland rhetoric, NewsOnline Nigeria gathers.
NewsOnline Nigeria reports that the Kremlin is closely following US President-elect Donald Trump’s claim to Greenland, a spokesman said on Thursday, expressing relief that currently it was only rhetoric.
This Nigeria news platform understands that Trump refused to rule out military action to take control of the Arctic island at a press conference Tuesday. He had earlier vowed to slap high tariffs on Denmark if it refused to cede its autonomous territory.
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“We are very closely watching this rather dramatic development of the situation, which is, thank God, at the level of statements so far,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
“We are interested in preserving peace and stability in this zone and are ready to co-operate with any parties for this peace and stability,” he added.
He also suggested the people of Greenland be consulted about what they wanted, pointing to Russia’s annexation of four Ukrainian regions in 2022 based on referendums.
“We should show the same respect for the opinion of these people,” Peskov said.
Western countries and Kyiv denounced Russia’s annexations of four regions in Ukraine as illegal and the referendums as a sham.
Greenland is a mineral-rich autonomous territory of EU member Denmark and an associated territory of the 27-member bloc.
Trump separately on Tuesday suggested using military force to secure control of the Panama Canal, which the United States handed back to Panama under late President Jimmy Carter, and leveraging economic force against neighbouring Canada.