The Panama Government withdrew the issue of the Bilateral Agenda Canal in the visit of a high military position in the United States. Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino reiterated that in the sea road there is no Chinese presence.
Panama again rejected United States accusations about China's influence and control on the Panama Canal and took out the issue of its bilateral conversation agenda, before the visit of the commander of the Southern Command of the United States Army. The controversy has generated friction between the two countries after the inauguration of President Donald Trump in January.
Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino, instructed his chancellor Javier Martinez Acha so that if the issue is mentioned during his encounter with the American navy admiral Alvin Holsey, commander of the South Command, rejects it and is discarded in the bilateral conversation, reported the AP agency.
Trump has reiterated on several occasions that his government will seek to resume the control of the Panama Canal, claiming that there is the presence of Chinese soldiers in the area and that “exorbitant rates” are applied to the ships of the US Navy. Panamanian authorities have recurrently denied these accusations, while negotiating agreements with the United States for the reception of deported migrants.
“We are not going to talk about lies. That is to abound over the morbidity that has been created on the Chinese issue in Panama and the control of the Chinese Communist Party on the channel … for the love of God, ”said the Mulino President on Thursday, during his weekly conference with the media .
The issue was mentioned as part of the agenda that was planned to address during the visit, according to a statement from the previous day of the United States Embassy in Panama.
In the document, Holsey's visit for February 19 and 20 The United States and Panama in security. He also mentioned other security issues such as “protect the area of the channel from the influence and control of the Chinese Communist Party.”
There was also a meeting with the Panama Canal Administrator Ricaurte Vásquez. At the end of the afternoon, in a joint statement, both parties reported that a cooperation agreement was reached to improve safety against cyber threats, but no mention was made if the controversy over China was addressed.
Earlier, Mulino expressed his rejection of the topic in his account on social network X, formerly Twitter. “The bilateral agenda with the US is important and relevant. However, for Panama, it does not happen to analyze situations that are not true. We are not going to talk about what is not a reality, but about those issues that interest us to both countries, ”he published.
Mulino acknowledged the insistence that Washington maintains on the issue of the alleged presence and Chinese influence on the channel and admitted that his government is working on it. “We have in the United States a group of people working not only on Lobby, but a strategy against important and weight media,” he explained.
He also said he has had no other request to resume the call that had pending with US President Trump, after it was canceled a few days ago.
“There has been nothing more that call. They asked them, not me. So the day they want to talk, we talk; And if they don't want to talk, we don't talk. Simple, ”he said.
The Embassy of the People's Republic of China in Panama through its embassy issued a statement where the United States accusations also denied. “The Chinese part has never participated in the management or operation of the Panama Canal, nor has intervened in channel affairs.”
“The maneuvers of the US party to sabotage relations between China and Panama will not find any support and will be destined for failure,” the statement added.