 "'No possibility of opening any kind of conversation': Panama's Mulino rules out talks with Trump over canal threat")
Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino stated on Thursday (December 26) that he would not engage in negotiations with Donald Trump regarding control of the Panama Canal. This comes in response to the US president-elect’s suggestion that the canal should be returned to Washington.
Additionally, Mulino dismissed the idea of reducing canal tolls for US vessels and denied any influence from China over the crucial waterway that connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
“If there is an intention to talk, then there’s nothing to talk about,” Mulino told a weekly press conference.
“The canal is Panamanian and belongs to Panamanians. There’s no possibility of opening any kind of conversation around this reality, which has cost the country blood, sweat and tears,” he added.
The canal, which was completed in 1914, was constructed by the United States and handed over to Panama on December 31, 1999, according to treaties signed approximately twenty years earlier by then-US president Jimmy Carter and Panamanian nationalist leader Omar Torrijos.
What had Trump said?
Trump on Saturday (December 21) slammed what he called unfair fees for US ships passing through the canal and hinted at China’s growing influence.
If Panama could not ensure “the secure, efficient and reliable operation” of the channel, “then we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to us, in full, and without question,” he said.
Mulino said the usage fees were “not set at the whim of the president or the administrator” of the interoceanic waterway, but under a long-established “public and open process.”
Impact Shorts
More Shorts“There is absolutely no Chinese interference or participation in anything to do with the Panama Canal,” Mulino said.
On Tuesday, numerous protesters gathered outside the US embassy in Panama City, shouting “Trump, animal, leave the canal alone” and burning a picture of the incoming American president.
With inputs from agencies
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