Mark Esper: Trump Talking About Canada, Greenland and Panama Canal Is a ‘Negotiating Tactic’

BLITZER: “Amidst all of this, Mr. Secretary, President-Elect Trump has been talking a lot about potentially expanding U.S. territory. He’s talking about absorbing Canada and Greenland. Now he’s suggesting taking control of the Panama Canal, just like he did in his first term, talked about it. You worked under Trump. Is this something that he’s seriously considering?”

ESPER: “Well, we don’t know. I think the best assessment is that it’s a negotiating tactic. Whether it’s he’s trying to reduce shipping rates in the Panama Canal or is just somehow interested in acquiring Greenland, I don’t know. But to me the common thread, that I think is an important one, are Chinese pursuing interests in both Greenland and Panama. We know that Greenland, for example, it’s believed to include nearly a quarter of the world’s strategic reserves of rare earth materials, lithium, graphite, things like that, and the Chinese for years have been trying to get in there to set up mines and to mine that and to continue to dominate those sectors. And likewise in Panama, we know the five ports down there, they control two of them. And we know, or at least I believe, that there are government people that are collecting data on shipping, monitoring traffic, conducting espionage, and we should be very concerned about Chinese presence, presence in Panama, and of course not just Panama, but all of Latin America.”