Moscow had a message Tuesday for new U.S. President Donald Trump: Don’t even think about grabbing control of the Panama Canal.
Trump has repeatedly threatened to take ownership of the critical maritime trade route — which the U.S. signed over to Panama in 1977 — calling it “vital” to American interests and refusing to rule out using military force in pursuit of his goal.
He again raised the Panama Canal in his inauguration speech Monday, saying: “American ships are being severely overcharged … And above all China is operating the Panama Canal and we didn’t give it to China, we gave it to Panama, and we’re taking it back.”
But Russia’s foreign ministry said Tuesday that the Panama Canal legally belongs to Panama and warned the U.S. against trying to reclaim it, whether by military or economic coercion.
“We expect that during the expected discussions between the leadership of Panama and U.S. President Donald Trump on issues of control over the Panama Canal … the parties will respect the current international legal regime of this key waterway,” said Alexander Shchetinin, director of the Latin American department of the Russian foreign ministry, according to Russian state media.
“Russia […] confirms its obligations to maintain the permanent neutrality of the Panama Canal, advocating for keeping this international transit waterway safe and open,” Shchetinin said, and added that the U.S. does not have “the right to interfere in the internal affairs of Panama.” (Russia, for its part, launched a full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine in the winter of 2022.)
The Panama Canal links the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and is one of the U.S.’s most important trade routes, with about 40 percent of all the country’s container ships passing through it.
Trump’s original canal threat last month triggered a sharp rebuke from Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino, who called his Central American country’s dominion over the waterway “non-negotiable.”
“As president, I want to clearly state that every square meter of the Panama Canal and its adjoining zone is Panama’s and will remain so,” Mulino said.
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