Q24N (EFE) The president of Panama, José Raúl Mulino, “trusts” that the crisis surrounding the threats of his American counterpart, Donald Trump, to “recover” the canal will be “overcome” because “there is no basis for a confrontation,” a few days before the arrival of the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio.
“These are my reflections in the face of a historic, delicate moment in the country’s international policy with the US, which I hope and trust will be overcome. I have full confidence in this. I am not interested in any type of dispute, any type of confrontation. First because there is no basis for a confrontation,” said Mulino this Thursday during his weekly press conference.
The Panamanian president said that “if a third of what was said were true (the presence of China in the canal, as Trump claims), there would be a problem” but “there is none and because there is none. It’s as simple as that.”
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Trump has expressed his intentions to “recover” the Panama Canal alleging the alleged presence of China in the waterway, something that the Panamanian government has denied on several occasions, and has also clarified that the canal “is and will continue to be Panamanian,” a phrase repeated by Mulino during several public interventions.
In this regard, today Mulino said that “there is, it seems, a confusion between the canal and the ports, which must be clarified,” as analysts point out that Trump’s words could be related to the fact that some companies that operate the ports around the waterway are Chinese.
“The adjacent ports, all of them, have no influence in the administration of the canal. None. Not in the operation, control or maintenance of the same. They are, as they are rightly called, auxiliary activities. That is, they serve a purpose in the navigation that uses the canal, but they have absolutely nothing to do with the canal,” argued the Panamanian president.
The five main ports in Panama are operated by multinationals from the US, Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Two of these ports, Balboa (Pacific) and Cristobal (Atlantic) – right at the respective entrances to the canal – are operated by a subsidiary of CK Hutchison Holdings, a multinational based in Hong Kong, which is now being audited by the Panamanian authorities.
“I cannot open a negotiation process on the Canal”
Mulino’s words, said during his weekly press conference, come in the days prior to the arrival of Marco Rubio to Panama as part of a tour of Central America and the Dominican Republic. The US Secretary of State is expected to arrive in Panama on Saturday.
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“I cannot negotiate and much less open a negotiation process. That is sealed, the canal belongs to Panama. We have common issues that of course we can agree on many things,” Mulino explained.
The Panama Canal was built by the United States, which opened it in 1914 and administered it until its transfer to the Panamanian State on December 31, 1999, as established in the Torrijos-Carter Treaties signed on September 7, 1977 in Washington between then President Jimmy Carter (1977-1981) and Panamanian General Omar Torrijos (1968-1981).
“They lied,” says Mulino about the Senate hearing in the US
The United States Senate held a hearing last Tuesday to examine the problems of Chinese influence and its infrastructure around the Panama Canal, after Trump asked for the return of this strategic route for global maritime transport.
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In it, some of his senators argued that the canal is vital for US national security and that Trump has rightly put the importance of this strategic waterway back on the front line.
“They (the Senate) are the legislative body, part of the body, they are bicameral. So they talked, they invented and they lied. What can I tell you? 0 stress,” said Mulino.
In Panama on Sunday, US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, said China Threatens Canal and demanded ‘immediate’ action and that “the United States could take steps to “protect its rights”..
The New York Times reported Sunday that President Trump, speaking to reporters at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland about the canal on Sunday, said that “we’re going to take it back, or something very powerful is going to happen.”
President Mulino, however, provided a different account, saying after the meeting that he did not believe Rubio had conveyed a threat that Trump might move to reclaim the canal.
He said he saw little risk of such an intervention.
Speaking to reporters after meeting with Rubio, Mulino repeatedly played down the risk that President Trump might seize the canal, by force or otherwise. “There is no question that the canal is operated by Panama and will continue to be so,” he said.
“I don’t think there was any discrepancy on that,” he said.
“I did not feel any threat,” Mulino added.
Mulino stressed that sovereignty over the canal is not up for debate.
The US Secretary of State will visit Costa Rica on Tuesday, February 4. Rubio is expected to arrive in the country at 8:15 am.
After Costa Rica, Rubio is will visit El Salvador, Guatemala, and the Dominican Republic.
Ahead of his first foreign trip as secretary of state, Rubio said: “These nations were neglected by previous administrations that prioritized the global over the local and implemented policies that accelerated China’s economic development.
“The illegitimate regimes in Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela are intentionally amplifying the chaos. Meanwhile, the Chinese Communist Party is using its diplomatic and economic influence, such as the Panama Canal, to oppose the United States and turn sovereign countries into vassal states.”
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