Tom Bateman<\/strong> Trump has said the US will “go as far as we have to go” to get Greenland, while he has also declined1<\/a><\/sup> to rule out2<\/a><\/sup> the use of force to seize it and other territories3<\/a><\/sup> including the Panama Canal. It\u2019s clear there are foreign leaders in these places, along with Canada, hoped for some time this was all part of Trump\u2019s characteristically brash hyperbole4<\/a><\/sup> – a kind of maximalist, if coercive, trade negotiating position.<\/p> But Vance\u2019s trip along with the president\u2019s continuing comments have made it increasingly clear to them Trump seems serious in his annexationist ambitions. These threats upend5<\/a><\/sup> 80 years of established international norms, previously led by the US, that respect the territorial integrity of countries. The rule prohibiting territorial conquest has been a pillar of the post-1945 international order as defined in the Charter of the United Nations to which the US was a founding signatory.<\/p> Trump\u2019s claim to Greenland, as well as his sights on other foreign territories, turn back the clock on at least eight decades of American and internationally established policy.<\/p>
US State Department correspondent<\/em><\/p>Vocabulary<\/h3>