“American ships are seriously overcharged and not treated fairly in any way, shape or form, and that includes the United States Navy, and above all, China runs the Panama Canal. And we didn’t give it to China. We gave it to Panama and we’re bringing it back,” Trump said.
These announcements received a fierce response from Panama, whose president Jose Raul Mulino said that “no nation in the world can interfere with the Panamanian administration.”
“I repeat what I expressed in my message to the nation on December 22: The Canal will continue to belong to Panama and its administration will continue to be under Panamanian control in terms of its permanent neutrality,” Mulino said, adding:
“There is no nation in the world that can interfere in our administration. The canal was nobody’s concession. It was the result of generational struggles that culminated in 1999, as a result of the Torrijos-Carter agreement, and from then until today, 25 years , continuously, we have successfully and responsibly expanded it to serve the world and its commerce, including the United States.”
He said that international law provides them as an ideal way to manage relations between states and allied and friendly countries.
In the previous month, the US president initiated the process of nationalizing the Panama Canal as a first-class interest for US national security, which he confirmed in his inaugural speech.
(Vijesti.ba)
