Panama President Mulino discloses Trump ‘lying’ about reclaiming the canal Panama President Jose Raul Mulino has implicated his American counterpart, Donald Trump, of lying when he informed members of Congress that the United States is “reclaiming” the Panama Canal.
In the statement posted on X on Wednesday, Mulino stated the man-made waterway that connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans “is not in the process of recovery” by Trump and the US government.
“Once again, President Trump is lying,” Mulino wrote on X.
“I turn down, on behalf of Panama and all Panamanians, this new affront to the truth and to our dignity as a nation,” Mulino added.
During the annual presidential address to the US Congress on Tuesday, Trump publicised that Washington would be reclaiming the Panama Canal “to further enhance” US national security.
“We’ve already started doing it. We’re taking it back.”
He was referencing a deal broadcasted on Tuesday for a consortium, led by the US investment management company BlackRock Inc, to buy a controlling stake in the company held by a Chinese group that operates ports at both terminates of one of the busiest water channels in the world.
In a filing, CK Hutchison Holding had publicized that it would sell all shares in Hutchison Port Holdings and in Hutchison Port Group Holdings to BlackRock in a deal valued at nearly $23bn, including $5bn in debt.
The deal has to be approved by Panama’s government.
Trump has been talking about retaking the Panama Canal since his campaign, arguing the US should have never turned control over to the Panamanians and that the US was existence overcharged for using it.
Since bouncing back to the White House, he has also started complaining that China controls the canal, and did not precept rationale out a military invasion to regain control of it.
Panama maintains it has full control over the canal and that the Hong Kong-based group’s operation of the ports did not amount to Chinese control over the waterway, and therefore the private sale to an US-based company would not represent any US “reclaiming” of the canal.
In February, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Mulino and insisted that China was exerting influence over the canal’s operations.
Panama declined that China had any lobby over canal operations. Beijing has also consistently turned down interfering in the canal.
The US built the canal in the early 1900s as it looked for ways to facilitate the transit of commercial and military vessels between its coasts.
Washington relinquished control of the waterway to Panama on December 31, 1999, under a treaty signed in 1977 by President Jimmy Carter. Trump has alleged that Carter “foolishly” gave the canal away.
The 80km (50-mile) canal handles 5 percent of global maritime trade and 40 percent of US container traffic.
Regards to Al Jazeera
Category: World-News
Tag: Panama President Mulino discloses Trump lying about reclaiming the canal
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Published 3/6/2025