01/22/2025January 22, 2025
Panama Canal was not ‘a gift’ — Panama’s President Jose Raul Mulino
has complained to the United Nations over US President Donald Trump’s threat to seize the Panama Canal.
In a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the government cited an article of the UN Charter precluding any member from “the threat or use of force” against the territorial integrity or political independence of another.
During his inaugural speech, Trump claimed that China was effectively “operating” the Panama Canal through its growing presence around the waterway, which the United States handed over at the end of 1999.
“We didn’t give it to China, we gave it to Panama. And we’re taking it back,” Trump said.
Panama’s president, Jose Raul Mulino, rejected the notion that the vital waterway was a gift.
“We reject in its entirety everything that Mr Trump has said. First because it is false and second because the Panama Canal belongs to Panama and will continue to belong to Panama,” Mulino said Wednesday while attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
“The Panama Canal was not a concession or a gift from the United States,” he added.
Meanwhile, China insisted it had “never interefered” in the Panama Canal.
“China does not participate in the management and operation of the canal and has never interfered in the affairs of the canal,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said.
kb/sms (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)
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