Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Thursday said she doesn’t believe President-elect Trump has a plan to purchase Greenland or acquire it through military force.
“I think we can exclude that the United States in the coming years will try to use force to annex territory that interests it,” Meloni said during an annual press conference according to the Associated Press.
Instead, she concluded that his statements were “a message to some other big global players more than any hostile claim over these countries.” Meloni visited Trump’s Mar-a-Lago in Florida last week.
On Thursday, she affirmed that Trump’s remarks about Greenland were warnings against “Chinese pragmatism” in a “long-distance debate between great powers.”
Yet, the former president didn’t completely rule out the use of military force on foreign territories.
“I am not going to commit to that. It might be that you have to do something,” Trump said during a Tuesday press conference when asked about the use of force.
Despite Meloni’s belief that the threat’s won’t materialize, the Republican has sparked a fury among Greenland and Panama’s leaders who have condemned his recent comments.
Still, the Italian premier, a conservative, has remained largely supportive of the incoming president. The foreign leader said she believes in the former president’s ability to navigate extraneous relations amid a second term.
“If we’re talking about peace today it’s because Russia is a little bit bogged down in Ukraine, and it’s bogged down thanks to the courage of course of the Ukrainian people, but also thanks to Western support,” Meloni said. “Donald Trump understands this well.”
Meloni said she doesn’t believe Trump would abandon the Eastern European nation during its time of need.
“Frankly I don’t see a disengagement and I don’t read this in [Trump’s] statements,” Meloni said.
