United States President Donald Trump has threatened to cut ties with Spain and insists he still wants Greenland, as NATO leaders met for a summit in the Turkish capital Ankara.
“I’m very upset with NATO,” he told reporters on Wednesday as he met alliance chief Mark Rutte before the main summit session.
“I’m not happy with NATO because of what they did with Greenland, and I’m not happy with NATO because of the fact that they didn’t want to help us with the number one state sponsor of terror, that’s Iran.”
Trump singled out Spain for particular criticism, calling it a “terrible partner in NATO”.
“Spain is a wasted cause. We don’t want to do any trade business with Spain anymore,” he said, asking Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to “cut it off”.
In March, Spain said the US would not be allowed to use joint military bases on its territory for operations against Iran and closed its airspace to US planes involved in the war.
The office of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said in a statement it was treating Trump’s statements as “business as usual” and did not intend to change the “excellent” relations it enjoyed with Washington.
It pointed out that Spain had a trade deficit with the US and that economic ties were forged by private companies rather than governments, adding that as part of the customs and trade union, individual European Union members could not be singled out.
Meanwhile, the EU said it expected the US to honour its trade deal obligations with the 27-member body.
“I remind you that we signed a joint statement with the US last year. We expect the US to honour its commitments under that joint statement, as we have honoured ours,” European Commission spokesperson Olof Gill said in a statement.
While Trump is still smarting from Europe’s response to his war with Israel on Iran, he still has not dropped his desire for NATO member Denmark’s territory of Greenland. .
Rutte said the US and Denmark would stick to a deal to hold talks over potentially increasing the US footprint on the Arctic island.
Credit: aljazeera.com
