Jose Raul Mulino rejects prospect of talks with Donald Trump, who threatened US could retake control of Panama Canal.
The Panamanian president has rejected threats by US President-elect Donald Trump that the United States could reassert control over the Panama Canal, saying “there’s nothing to talk about.”
President Jose Raul Mulino on Thursday also rejected the possibility of reducing canal tolls for US vessels and denied that China had any influence over the vital waterway connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
“If there is an intention to talk, then there’s nothing to talk about,” Mulino said during a weekly news 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.”
The president’s comments come days after Trump, who takes office next month, threatened to take back control of the Panama Canal over what he said were “ridiculous” fees being charged by the Panamanian authorities.
The US exerted administrative control of the canal for decades before handing it to Panama in 1999.
In a series of social media posts over the past week, Trump accused the Central American country, with whom Washington has had diplomatic relations since 1903, of “ripping off” the US on the Panama Canal.
“Our Navy and Commerce have been treated in a very unfair and injudicious way,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Saturday.
“The fees being charged by Panama are ridiculous, especially knowing the extraordinary generosity that has been bestowed to Panama by the US. This complete ‘rip-off’ of our Country will immediately stop.”
Trump also claimed that Chinese soldiers were “lovingly, but illegally, operating the Panama Canal”.
That claim was rejected on Thursday by the Panamanian president, who said China has no role in the administration of the canal.
“There are no Chinese soldiers in the canal for the love of God, the world is free to visit the canal,” Mulino told reporters.
China does not control or administer the canal, but a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison Holdings has long managed two ports located on the canal’s Caribbean and Pacific entrances.
Meanwhile, Trump on Wednesday named Miami-Dade County Commissioner Kevin Marino Cabrera as his envoy to Panama.
Describing Cabrera as “a fierce fighter for America First principles”, Trump said in a social media post that he “will do a FANTASTIC job representing our Nation’s interests in Panama!”
Earlier this week, dozens of demonstrators gathered outside the US embassy in Panama City in anger over Trump’s Panama Canal comments.
The protesters chanted “Trump, animal, leave the canal alone!” and burned a picture of the incoming US president.
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