Panama rebuts Trump's 'canal takeover' claim as false
U.S. President Donald Trump misled the public by asserting that his administration has started "regaining" the Panama Canal, Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino stated on Wednesday. He reaffirmed his previous assurances that the canal "is and will remain Panamanian."
"Once again, President Trump is lying. The Panama Canal is not in the process of recovery," Mulino declared on platform X.
"I reject, on behalf of Panama and all Panamanians, this new affront to the truth and to our dignity as a nation. (...) The canal is and will remain Panamanian," the president asserted.
Donald Trump talks about China
In Tuesday's speech before the joint houses of the U.S. Congress, Trump again suggested that China influences the management of the Panama Canal and announced the takeover of control over this waterway. To further enhance our national security, my administration will be reclaiming the Panama Canal, and we've already started doing it," he claimed.
He referred to information that the American company BlackRock has agreed to purchase a majority stake in a subsidiary of the Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchinson. CK Hutchinson owns the ports in Balboa and Cristobal, which are located on both sides of the Panama Canal.
In a transaction valued at £18.7 billion, the company will acquire shares in 43 ports worldwide, including the container terminal in Gdynia.
The Hutchinson company has operated terminals on both sides of the Panama Canal since 1997, but increasing tensions between the U.S. and China prompted the American administration to push for taking control of strategic port assets.
The Panama Canal is just over 80 kilometres long and is a significant trade route connecting Asia and the eastern U.S. coast. About 5 percent of the world's maritime trade passes through it. The number of such voyages was 11,240 in the last fiscal year, 20 percent less than the previous year.
