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Donald Trump on taking Panama Canal: 'Something very powerful going to happen’
Among the first tasks on returning to Whit House, newly sworn in US President Donald Trump threatened to take control of the Panama Canal.
Over Chinese “influence” and control over the Panama Canal, US President Donald Trump on Sunday said “something very powerful is going to happen soon”, adding that the critical waterway that connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans was not given to China but a violation of agreement had taken place.
The Panama Canal -- which Donald Trump has dubbed a modern "wonder of the world" -- was built by the US and opened in 1914 at the cost of thousands of lives of laborers, mostly people of African descent from Barbados, Jamaica and elsewhere in the Caribbean.
Among the first tasks on returning to Whit House, newly sworn in US President Donald Trump threatened to take control of the canal, handed over to Panama in 1999 by the then US President Jimmy Carter, claiming that it is being operated by Beijing.
Donald Trump said that he did not think troops would be necessary, but that Panama had violated the agreement and the United States would take back the canal.
“China's running the Panama Canal… it was not given to China… But they violated the agreement and we're going to take it back or something very powerful is going to happen,” Donald Trump told reporters on Sunday.
US warns Panama over ‘China’s influence' on canal
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, known as a China hawk, on Sunday threatened action against Panama, warning country's President Jose Raul Mulino that Washington will "take measures necessary" if Panama does not immediately take steps to end what China's influence and control over waterway.
Panama President Jose Raul Mulino, however, insisted he was not afraid of a US invasion and offered talks.
On his first trip overseas as the top US diplomat, Rubio took a guided tour of the canal accompanied by its Panamanian administrator as a South Korean-affiliated oil tanker and Marshall Islands-flagged cargo ship passed through the vital link between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
Meeting President Jose Raul Mulino, Marco Rubio "made clear that this status quo is unacceptable and that absent immediate changes, it would require the United States to take measures necessary to protect its rights under the treaty," State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said.
Panama President Jose Raul Mulino said his meeting with Rubio was respectful and cordial, according to an Reuters report. Mulino showed willingness to review some Chinese businesses in Panama, including a key 25-year concession to Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison Holdings, renewed in 2021 for the operation of ports at both entrances of the canal, pending the results of an audit, the report said.
The above-mentioned contract has been targeted by US lawmakers and the government as an example of China's expansion in Panama, which they claim goes against a neutrality treaty signed by both countries in 1977.
Panama government and some experts reject that assertion, mainly because the ports are not part of the canal's operations, overseen by the Panama Canal Authority, an autonomous agency overseen by the Panamanian government.
A broad agreement between Panama and China to contribute to China's Belt and Road initiative, under which the Asian country expanded investment in Panama during previous administrations, will not be renewed, Mulino said.
