In response to Trump, the President of Panama rejects any negotiations on the ownership of the channel

On Thursday, President Jose Raul Mulino said that there will be no negotiations with the United States on the ownership of the Panama Channel, expressing his hope that the visit of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will allow his country to focus on common interests, including immigration issues and combating drug smuggling.
Because Panama is the first external destination for the US Secretary of State, this visit could have had a great deal, but Rubio is making it as an envoy to US President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly announced that the United States would restore the Panama channel.

Feasts on American ships

On the day he was inaugurated, Trump claimed that he was imposing exaggerated fees on American ships, and which was not dealt with in any way.
He pointed out that “moreover, China runs the Panama channel.”
Trump previously said that the United States will demand the return of the channel, and Mulino tried on Thursday to reduce tension in his weekly press conference.

Mulino expressed his desire to clarify ambiguity on the role of China in the channel, as the union of (consortium) companies in Hong Kong runs two ports on both sides of the channel, while Panama controls the channel as a whole, and blamed one of his predecessors for granting a long -term concession to control the two ports.
“This is an impossible, I cannot negotiate this, this is a foregone caution,” said Mulino.

Facilitate the crossing of commercial ships

It is noteworthy that the United States had made the channel in the beginning of the last century, as it looked for ways to facilitate the transit of commercial and military ships between its coasts.
Washington abandoned the control of the waterway to Panama on December 31, 1999, according to an agreement signed by former President Jimmy Carter in 1977.