On Thursday, January 9, 2025, Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni stated that she did not think President-elect Donald Trump actually plans to use military force to take over Greenland or the Panama Canal. Instead, she interpreted his remarks as a warning to China and other international players to avoid interfering with such strategically significant interests.
Ms. Meloni, who traveled last weekend to see Mr. Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate and plans to attend his inauguration, stated, “I think we can exclude that the United States in the coming years will try to use force to annex territory that interests it.”
She claimed that rather than any hostile claim over these nations, Mr. Trump’s remarks were “a message to some other big global players.”
She said she interpreted Trump’s warning as part of a “long-distance debate between great powers” and blamed it on increased “Chinese protagonism” in resource-rich Greenland and the commercially significant Panama Canal. Meloni was asked a lot of questions concerning her relationships with Elon Musk and Donald Trump while she was speaking at an annual news conference. She stated that she hoped to attend Trump’s inauguration on January 20 but first checked her schedule.
“I would be happy to participate if I can,” she said.
On Tuesday, January 7, 2025, Mr. Trump stated that he would not rule out using military force to take over Greenland and the Panama Canal, which he said were essential to American national security.
By implying that the United States is now comfortable with nations using force to redraw borders at a time when China is threatening Taiwan, which it claims as its own territory, and Russia is moving forward with its invasion of Ukraine, analysts say such rhetoric could embolden America’s adversaries.
Since Russia’s invasion, Meloni has been a steadfast supporter of Ukraine, and she expressed her belief that the Trump administration would not desert Kyiv. Trump’s claim that he could end the war in a day during the US presidential campaign raised concerns about whether the US would remain Ukraine’s largest and most significant military supporter.
“If we are discussing peace today, it is because Russia is somewhat sunk in Ukraine, and it is sunk not only by the bravery of the Ukrainian people
but also by Western assistance,” Meloni stated. “Donald Trump is well aware of this.”
She stated that she expected Trump to employ diplomacy of deterrence, as he demonstrated in his first administration.Meloni remarked,
“To be honest, I don’t see a disengagement and I don’t read this in (Trump’s) statements.”
A day prior to Ms. Meloni’s press conference, her right wing government had achieved a significant political win by bringing home an Italian journalist who had been held captive in Iran for three weeks.
The case of an Iranian engineer held in Italy under a US warrant had become entangled with that of Cecilia Sala. The United States is looking for Mohammad Abedini in relation to a drone attack in Jordan in 2024 that claimed the lives of three American soldiers.
Italian pundits had claimed that Iran was using Sala as leverage to get Abedini released, and there was conjecture on Thursday regarding what would happen to him now that he was back home.
A hearing on Abedini’s request for house arrest is scheduled for January 15 while he is still being held in a Milan prison pending his extradition to the United States.
Meloni confirmed for the first time that Washington’s interests in the case were taken into consideration during the negotiations, describing a “diplomatic triangulation” with Iran and the United States as crucial to securing Sala’s release.
She stated that she would have preferred to speak with President Joe Biden about the Abedini case in greater detail. Biden was scheduled to visit Rome this weekend but abruptly canceled his trip to observe the response to the fires in Los Angeles.
“These discussions have happened and will continue,” Meloni stated. “The work is extremely intricate, and it didn’t finish yesterday.” In any case, she said, the Italian justice ministry is currently awaiting a decision in the Abedini case.
