Panama City:
The president of Panama, José Raul Mulino, discarded on Thursday the negotiations with the United States about the property of the Panama Canal while preparing to receive the Secretary of State of Donald Trump, Marco Rubio.
Trump, in his inaugural speech on January 20, claimed that China was “operating” effectively the river route that the United States delivered to the Central American nation in 1999.
“We did not give it to China, we gave it to Panama. And we are recovering it,” Trump said.
But Mulino said that the opening negotiations on the property of the channel “is impossible.”
“I can’t negotiate, much less open a negotiation process on the channel. (The matter) is sealed. The channel is that of Panama,” he said at his weekly press conference.
Panama, for a long time friend of the United States, has complained to the United Nations for Trump’s threat.
However, Mulino said there are common problems such as migration and the fight against organized crime and drug trafficking that would be happy to discuss with Rubio when he visits in the next few days.
“We are more than willing to speak with respect and very clearly … with the Secretary of State,” said the president, without giving a date for the meeting.
Rubio’s first trip abroad as Trump’s best envoy will take him to Panama, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic.
The visit occurs in the midst of high voltage between Latin America and Washington on Trump’s plans for mass deportations of undocumented migrants, most of which come from the region.
Despite the tension, Mulino emphasized that Panama had a “privileged relationship” with the United States, “not China.”
“The relationship with the United States is strong, it has always been so, there have been ups and downs, love and hate, but there has always been a strong relationship that … It has allowed us to overcome very, very complicated situations,” he said.
Built by the United States and opened in 1914, the channel was administered by the United States until 1977, when the treaties were signed under the then US president Jimmy Carter for delivery to Panama.
Since 1999, the channel has been administered by the Panama Canal Authority (ACP), an autonomous entity whose board of directors is appointed by the Legislature and the president of Panama.
In The Eye of the Storm is the private company of Panama Ports, a subsidiary of the conglomerate based in Hong Kong, CK Hutchison Holdings, to which a concession was granted to operate ports at any end of the 82 -kilometer river track (51 miles).
The PPC does not make any decision on shipping routes.
The ports “are not under the control of governments or military forces of any nation,” Mulino insisted, who also rejected any interference suggestion in the administration of the channel.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and was automatically generated from a union feed).
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