As Trump’s advisers work toward his goal of acquiring Greenland, the president has privately grown more exercised about what he sees as Canada’s similar inability to defend its borders against any encroachment from Russia or China, specifically arguing Canada needs to spend more on defense, the officials said. They said his push has accelerated internal discussions about a broader Arctic strategy and potentially reaching an agreement with Canada this year to fortify its northern border.
“Trump is really worried about the U.S. continuing to drift in the Western Hemisphere and is focused on this,” one of the officials said.
The current U.S. officials said there is not discussion of stationing American troops on the ground along Canada’s northern border. And unlike with Greenland, Trump is not seeking to purchase Canada or saying he might take it by U.S. military force, the senior administration official and current and former U.S. officials said.
The president’s intensifying private focus on Canada, whose relationship with the U.S. has been deeply strained, comes as he transforms some of his longtime criticisms of America’s neighbors in the Western Hemisphere into actions aimed at expanding U.S. power in the region.
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Protecting Canada’s northern border is a key part of Trump and his top aides’ vision of “solidifying” the Western Hemisphere, as one of the U.S. officials put it, so it aligns with the U.S. Trump on Saturday suggested a U.S. acquisition of Greenland, a semi-autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark, would also benefit Canada.
“At the end of the day, this is to stop Russia and China from having a further presence in the Arctic,” the senior administration official said. “Canada stands to benefit from the U.S. having Greenland.”
Canada's public position is that Greenland's fate is up to Greenland and Denmark. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Friday that Canada stands behind Denmark as a NATO ally.
Asked about the president’s recent renewed focus on Canada behind closed doors, White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said in a statement that an executive order Trump signed last April “underscores the United States’ commitment to ensuring both freedom of navigation and American dominance in the Arctic waterways.”
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Privately, amid Trump’s increasing complains, U.S. officials are pursuing talks with Canadian officials about ways to increase cooperation between their militaries in the Arctic, the senior administration official and the current and former U.S. officials said. The options being discussed include updating systems in Canada that provide early warnings that an adversary is getting close to the country’s territory or waters, more joint U.S. and Canadian military training and operations, and increasing joint air and water patrols as well as American ship patrols in the Arctic, the current U.S. officials said.
The current officials said there is not a discussion of stationing U.S. troops on the ground along Canada’s northern border.
One venue for discussions between the U.S. and Canada is a Pentagon working group focused on the Arctic, which has warned the White House that Canada’s exposure to China and Russia along its northern border is among the biggest issues facing the U.S. in the region, the current and former U.S. officials said.
Canadian Prime Minister Carney was in Beijing this past week, where he referenced “the new world order” while trying to strengthen ties with China amid Canada’s tensions with the U.S. Carney, the first Canadian prime minister to visit China since 2017, met with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday.
Trump was asked Friday about Carney cutting a trade deal with China and said that’s “a good thing.”
“That’s what he should be doing,” Trump said. “If you can get a deal with China, you should do that.”
One of Trump’s top criticisms of Canada has been the amount the country spends on defense, which he has repeated privately in recent days, according to the senior administration official and current and former U.S. officials. They said from Trump’s perspective, that means Canada can’t defend against China or Russia in the Arctic.
“They certainly need to up their game when it comes to Arctic capabilities,” one of the officials said, adding that “this is not acceptable given today’s threats” and “the status quo is not enough.”
Canada is increasing its defense spending but still falls short of the goal for NATO members.
“The world doesn’t see Canada as a major force when it comes to defense,” the senior administration official said.
Trump has expressed interest in purchasing more ice breakers to do more maritime patrols there, which could be among new expenditures for Arctic security in next year’s defense budget, the current and former U.S. officials said.
While he hasn’t ruled out using military force to seize Greenland, Trump said in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” last year that “it’s highly unlikely” he do so to take over Canada. “I don’t see it with Canada,” Trump said.
Trump has not been as publicly vocal about Canada as he’s been privately in recent weeks, and that isn’t expected to change as long as he views discussions between the two countries toward a resolution as productive, the senior administration official and U.S. officials said.
Posted by IHateTrains123
7 Comments
Imo the title of the article belies its content. It really got me expecting much more 51st state malarkey than, like, none at all
The title will get a reaction but tbh the actual substance of the article seems much more like a normal administration than what we have come to expect from Trump. Carney must be getting through to them better than Trudeau did.
SS: No, Trump does not want to annex Canada.
Trump instead sees the Canadian Arctic as a weak point for Russia and China to exploit, which weakens his aim of “solidifying” the Western Hemisphere under American control. Contrary to the situation in Greenland, Trump does not want to annex/purchase the Canadian Arctic nor station American troops in the region.
Rather he wants Canada to firstly boost their military spending, install aerial and naval early warning systems, hold more joint U.S. and Canadian Arctic military training and operations, increase joint patrols and have American ships patrol the region.
Yet the possible tension between Canada and America is the nature of more American ships in the Arctic. Previous American administrations have taken the view that Canadian Arctic waters count as an international waterway, contrary to the Canadian claim that these are our internal waters. Whether or not Trump is knows this underlying tensions is unknown, but increased American focus on the Arctic could possibly weaken Canada’s Arctic sovereignty in a less bombastic, but still meaningful way.
Edit: It should be noted that the Russians and also the Chinese have been making their presence in the Arctic known as well. So really Canada is in an incredibly tough position when it comes to our Arctic sovereignty.
!ping Can
https://preview.redd.it/f66vso7iq5eg1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6c4940e8ce9ee59065d8880234b2235427dc6471
I understand this isn’t an Op-ed so they’re going to beat around the bush a lot, but notice how much “Western Hemisphere” is mentioned in the article. The ultimate goal to me is to control all of North and South America, they seem pretty open about that.
It seems very reasonable if you have been ignoring the last year. Canadians now see America as a bigger threat to Canada than China, and favourability polls about how Canadians view America vs China are putting them shockingly close.
Give Trump another few months of doing what he’s doing, and you could see a Canada that would prefer China in the Arctic over America. The liberals are more technocratic than populist, so I doubt they would immediately respond to this change in which country Canadians have a higher opinion of, but it does open the door for a populist anti-america leader to take root.
The fact that America’s ambassador to Canada is so despised when he’s supposed to act as a friendly buffer between countries definitely isn’t helping either, but if America wanted friendly countries in the arctic they are shooting themselves in the foot with their actions. It feels like populism is on the rise in the world, and populism likes nothing more than an external bad guy you can hate, and America is handing every wannabe populist a gift wrapped villain.
Bull.
We are all well aware that the way to stop Russia from taking more territory, is to just fucking stop them from taking more territory. Duh. Kick them out of Ukraine because obviously. If we give them Ukraine, we give ourselves a much more difficult defense task in the future.
As it stands, the Russians are doing what they want in Ukraine and we’re not doing shit about it. Ukraine are looking stronger than we are at this point. Meanwhile we’re blowing up the strongest anti-Russian alliance there is, to fight over an ice covered island in the middle of nowhere.
Putin is winning. Because apparently we work for him now.
>spends a year saber rattling, on and off, at Canada
>asks the Canadians to shift their entire military posture to the opposite side of their country from the US border.
diplomacy.exe