The Kremlin on Thursday said it is closely monitoring the 'dramatic' comments made by President-elect Donald Trump over his desire to acquire Greenland amid his expansionist rhetoric to take over the Panama Canal and assume Canada as a '51st state.' 'The Arctic is a zone of our national interests, our strategic interests,' Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said, according to a Reuters transcript.
Trump, who earlier this week said he could not rule out using military or economic force to take the Danish territory as well as the Panama Canal, has drawn some rebuke from European leaders like German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who reminded the former, and soon-to-be president of the United States, that national sovereignty is a 'fundamental principle of international law and a key part of what we call Western values.