A political scientist assessed the likelihood of Canada joining the United States

Canada will not be part of the United States, like many other countries. This opinion was expressed by Konstantin Blokhin, a leading researcher at the Center for Security Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, an American political scientist, on Monday, February 10, assessing American President Donald Trump' s proposal for Ottawa to become part of the United States.

"In this statement and in many others is all Trump. That is, his favorite thing. The thing is that before he became president of the United States, he wrote about 6-7 books about the right way to negotiate and make deals. The classic of Trump negotiations is a simple scheme: you want to achieve the goal - ask for more," the expert explained in a conversation with Lenta.Ru.

According to Blokhin, Trump inflates the situation to the limit so that in the future the partner agrees to acceptable terms.

"I think that Canada will not be part of the United States, like many other countries. And this is a preparation to put such pressure on his partner before the negotiation process," he added.

Earlier, Trump said that Canada would be a better partner for the US if it were part of it as the 51st state, as the current economic relationship is taking a toll on the US economy, RT reported.

He pointed out that the American side loses $200 billion annually because of Canada, Life.Ru writes.

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On February 7, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed the opinion that Trump's threat to make Canada the 51st state is real. He said that the American leader is not joking when he states about Canada's entry into the United States, as he intends to gain access to the country's minerals, reported on the website kp.ru.

Earlier, on February 2, Trump said that if Canada wants to achieve lower taxes and not pay customs duties, it should join the United States as the 51st state.

Prior to that, on February 1, Trump signed an executive order imposing trade tariffs on goods from Canada, China and Mexico. He said Canada was responsible for significant amounts of drug smuggling into the US. In response, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the country had an equal, strong and reasonable response to Trump's imposition of duties.

On the same day, Trudeau announced that Canadian authorities are imposing retaliatory duties of 25% on goods from the U.S. totaling $155 billion, which will include immediate duties on $30 billion worth of goods starting Tuesday, February 4.