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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Panamez President José Raúl Mulino on Sunday to reduce China’s influence on the Panama Canal or face immediate consequences.
Rubio met with Mulino in Panama City and said US President Donald Trump had determined that China posed “a threat to the channel” and had violated a treaty about its neutrality, according to the spokesman for the State Department Tammy Bruce.
If the situation has not changed, the US would “take the necessary measures to protect its rights under the treaty,” Bruce wrote.
On Sunday evening, Trump told reporters: “China is running the Panama Canal. It was not given to China, it was given to Panama stupidly. But they violated the deal and we will get it again, or something very powerful will happen. “
Mulino, the conservative president of Panama’s pro-business, has described a previous Trump claim that Chinese soldiers were operating the channel as “nonsense” and have insisted that the water path “is and will always be Panama.”
The US built the 82km channel linking the Pacific and the Caribbean more than a century ago and controlled it and an adjacent extension of the territory until it signed a treaty in 1977 for a gradual surrender in Panama, which was completed in 1999.
The treaty guarantees permanent channel neutrality and allows the US to intervene if neutrality is violated.
When attacking the Chinese influence, the American critics of Panama are concentrated in two ports at both ends of the channel led by Hutchison ports, a conglomerate wing ranked in Hong Kong CK Hutchison Holdings, under long concessions. They were renewed without a bid process in 2021 for 25 years.
Mulino on Sunday accepted US concerns about ports and noted that his government had launched an audit of port concessions, which have a portion of the market nearly 40 percent, amid Panama speculation that they could be canceled.
However, it is not clear if the cancellation of Chinese concessions would be enough to satisfy Trump, who has called the channel tariffs “a complete reprint” and demanded that the US get the channel again.
About 200 people marched to the Panama capital on Sunday, holding national flags and shouting ‘Marco Rubio from Panama’ while the US Secretary Meeting was continuing, the Associated Press reported. Some burned a flag of Trump and Rubio images.
In another gesture against the US, Mulino said Panama’s participation in China’s Belt and Road Infrastructure Initiative would not be renewed, without giving a date for its expiration. Panama joined BRA in 2017 when he passed diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China.
In recent years, Chinese -controlled companies have built a large center of congresses near the mouth of the canal and are building a new bridge on the water road and a vessel port, contracts that were secured through bid processes. Beijing was seeking to build a large embassy on the ground near the canal while US opposition killed the scheme.
In his meeting with Mulino and Foreign Minister Panamez Javier Martínez-Ocha, Rubio also praised Panama’s efforts to end illegal migration and “underlined the desire for an improved investment climate.
The number of migrants who illegally pass the Darién jungle between Panama and Colombia – a large international migration route to the US in recent years – has been immersed since Trump took office. The numbers decreased 94 percent last month compared to the same month a year ago, according to the National Panama Migration Authority.
