WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump said Tuesday that Canada could join his proposed \u201cGolden Dome\u201d missile defense system for free \u2014 but only if it becomes part of the United States.
\nOtherwise it would cost Canada $61 billion to be part of the system, said Trump, who has repeatedly called for the United States\u2019 northern neighbor to become the 51st state.
\nCanada has expressed interest in joining the missile system \u2014 plans for which Trump unveiled last week to defend against a wide array of enemy weapons \u2014 but has firmly rejected any loss of sovereignty.
\n\u201cI told Canada, which very much wants to be part of our fabulous Golden Dome System, that it will cost $61 Billion Dollars if they remain a separate, but unequal, Nation,\u201d Trump posted on his Truth Social network.
\n\u201cBut (it) will cost ZERO DOLLARS if they become our cherished 51st State. They are considering the offer!\u201c
\nThere was no immediate response from Canada to Trump\u2019s claims.
\nTrump announced plans for the \u201cGolden Dome\u201d system a week ago, saying it would eventually cost around $175 billion and would be operational by the end of his term in 2029.
\nExperts say the scheme faces huge technical and political challenges, and could cost far more than he has estimated to achieve its goals.
\nTrump also said at the time that Canada was interested in joining the missile system. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney then confirmed that his country had held \u201chigh level\u201d talks on the issue.
\nNATO members Canada and the United States are partners in continental defense through the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD).
\nBut the scheme now seems set to add to the tensions that Trump has sparked with Canada.
\nCarney politely but firmly dismissed Trump\u2019s calls for Canada to become part of the United States when he visited the White House earlier this month, saying his country was \u201cnever for sale.\u201d
\nThe Canadian premier and Trump did however appear to smooth over some of the strains over the tariffs that the US president has slapped on Ottawa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump said Tuesday that Canada could join his proposed \u201cGolden Dome\u201d missile defense system for free \u2014 but only if it becomes part of the United States. Otherwise it would cost Canada $61 billion to be part of the system, said Trump, who has repeatedly called for the United States\u2019 northern neighbor …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":81685,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81672"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81672\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81686,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81672\/revisions\/81686"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}