“We completely disagree with everything Mr. Trump has said. “First, because it is untrue, and second, because the Panama Canal is and will remain a part of Panama”, states Jose Raul Mulino, president of Panama.
While conducting an audit of the operator of two ports on the interoceanic waterway, which is connected to Hong Kong, Panama has complained to the United Nations over US President Donald Trump’s “worrying” threat to seize the Panama Canal.
The Panama City government cited a clause in the UN Charter that prohibits any member from “the threat or use of force” against the political independence or territorial integrity of another in a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
The letter, which was given to reporters on Tuesday, calls on Guterres to bring the issue before the UN Security Council without requesting that a meeting be called.
In Monday’s inaugural speech, Trump reiterated his criticism that China was essentially “operating” the Panama Canal by expanding its influence around the waterway, which the US has turned over to China at the end of 1999.
“We gave it to Panama instead of to China. And we’re retracting it”, Trump decalred.
Jose Raul Mulino, the president of Panama, retorted at a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, saying the canal was not a gift from the United States.
“We completely disagree with everything Mr. Trump has said. Mulino stated Wednesday, “First, because it is untrue, and second, because the Panama Canal is and will remain part of Panama”.
“Transparent Use”
The president has previously claimed that the canal run on a neutrality principle and denied that any other country was meddling in it.
Beijing denied that it had ever “interfered” in the canal when questioned about the dispute on Wednesday.
According to Mao Ning, a spokesman for the foreign ministry, “China has always respected Panama’s sovereignty over the canal and recognized the canal as a permanent neutral international waterway”.
The Panama Ports Company will undergo “an exhaustive audit” aimed at ensuring the efficient and transparent use of public resources”, according to the office of the Panamanian comptroller that supervises public enterprises.
The business runs the ports of Balboa and Cristobal on either end of the canal as a division of Hutchison Ports, a division of the Hong Kong-based conglomerate CK Hutchison Holdings.
