Panama and China retaliate against Trump’s threats with the canal | News about Donald Trump
Panamanian president insists canal ‘wasn’t a gift’ from US; China declares that it does not interfere.
Panama and China rejected US President Donald Trump’s controversial claims regarding the Panama Canal.
The Panama Canal “was not a gift” from the US, Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino said Wednesday in response to Trump’s threat to seize control of the strategic waterway. Beijing, meanwhile, rejected it the claim of the American president to effectively control the channel.
“We reject in its entirety everything that Mr. Trump has said,” Mulino said during a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “Firstly because it is false and secondly because the Panama Canal belongs to Panama and will continue to belong to Panama. The Panama Canal was not a concession or a gift from the United States.”
Trump has previously refused to rule out military action to seize control of the canal, which the US opened in 1914 to provide a trade route linking its east and west coasts but handed over to Panama in 1999.
During his inauguration on Monday, the US president reiterated his complaint that China is effectively “managing” the canal, which it “fools away to Panama” thanks to its growing presence around the waterway.
“We didn’t give it to China, we gave it to Panama. And we’re withdrawing it,” Trump said.
‘I never interfered’
Panama City filed a formal complaint with the United Nations on Tuesday, citing an article in the UN Charter that bars any member from “threats or use of force” against the territorial integrity or political independence of another.
In a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, it requested that the UN Security Council – over which the US has veto power – take up the issue.
On Wednesday, a Foreign Ministry spokesman in Beijing said: “China does not participate in the management and operation of the canal and has never interfered in the affairs of the canal.”
Mulino has previously denied any nation’s interference in the Panama Canal, saying it operates on the principle of neutrality.
However, Panama has announced that it now plans to audit the canal and the Panama Ports Company, a subsidiary of Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchison Holdings that operates the ports of Balboa and Cristobal on both sides of the canal.
As well as outlining his determination to conquer the Panama Canal, Trump has also sparked a mix of concern and glee by threatening to use military or economic power to force Denmark to sell Greenland to the US, and plans to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America”.
