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Iceland has sharply criticized U.S. President Donald Trump's social media post of a map that appears to show the island and several other countries covered by the American flag. Trump posted the image on Truth Social on Monday, depicting the U.S., Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean under the Stars and Stripes flag. The map was published without comment and came after a flurry of preceding posts suggesting that the U.S. state of New Mexico should be renamed "New America." Iceland summoned U.S. Ambassador Billy Long over the incident, with Foreign Minister Thorgerdur Gunnarsdottir saying the meeting was necessary to "make it absolutely clear that, from our perspective, this was completely unacceptable." Speaking at a news conference, Gunnarsdottir said that the Nordic nation of nearly 400,000 stood with Greenland over Trump's annexation threats and would not soften its position on the matter. "It is absolutely clear that this is a fundamental principle. In my view, this is not a joke, and if it is meant to be a joke, it is a very poor one," Gunnarsdottir said, according to Iceland's national broadcaster RÚV. A White House spokesperson was not immediately available to comment when contacted by CNBC on Wednesday morning. The U.S. president has long advocated for control over Greenland, a self-governing Danish territory, on national security grounds. Notably, Trump appeared to repeatedly mix up Greenland and Iceland during a special address at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland earlier in the year. More recently, Iceland voted to reject restarting talks to join the European Union as domestic issues such as control over fishing appeared to take priority over geopolitical security concerns. Read more Danish and Mexican government officials also took exception to Trump's post. Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen reportedly described the post as "disturbing and, in many ways, completely inappropriate." In comments made to national broadcaster DR, Rasmussen added: "It's obviously a sign that the U.S. president still harbors some kind of maximalist vision in his own mind. We need to rein that in." Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, meanwhile, said Monday that the country "is neither nor will be a colony or protectorate of any foreign country." She added: "Proudly we are a free, independent, and sovereign nation."
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