President Trump Scores Win In Panama Canal Dispute

President Trump Scores Win In Panama Canal Dispute

Danielle

After a visit from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino announced his country would not renew its agreement with China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

Rubio met with Mulino over the weekend regarding President Trump’s concern about China’s influence over the Panama Canal.

“Secretary 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 spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a readout of the meeting.

Mulino told reporters on Sunday his government “would study the possibility of whether it can be finished earlier or not.”

He said it “paves the way for building a new stage of relationships.”

The news is a blow to Beijing, which views Panama as critical to its foreign influence efforts in the Western Hemisphere. Chinese businesses operate ports near the Panama Canal, which the United States owned and operated until moving control to Panama in 1999.

Following his meeting with Mulino, Rubio said the United States “cannot, and will not, allow the Chinese Communist Party to continue with its effective and growing control over the Panama Canal area.”

Brazil also considered joining the Belt and Road Initiative late last year, signaling a desire to align with the Chinese Communist Party. The country abandoned those plans soon after, however, with officials expressing fear about signing long-term agreements with Beijing. In late 2023, meanwhile, Italy became the first European nation to exit the initiative, arguing that the deal did little to boost the country’s exports to China.

Panama was the first Latin American nation to join the Belt and Road Initiative and now becomes the first to back away from it. The initiative seeks to spread Chinese influence worldwide through public investment from Beijing. Panama’s decision to leave the initiative reverses “the Chinese Communist Party’s geopolitical gains in our own hemisphere,” said Michael Sobolik, a veteran China analyst with the Hudson Institute think tank.

BREAKING: U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Panama’s president in a face-to-face meeting that the country must reduce alleged Chinese influence over the Panama Canal area or the Trump administration would take “measures necessary” to do so.

Trump previously said “we didn’t give it to China, we gave it to Panama.”

“They’ve totally violated the agreement,” he added.

WATCH:

NBC News reports:

Mulino previously denied that China has control over the canal. The canal is governed and operated by the Panama Canal Authority.

The canal used to be owned and operated by the U.S., but it slowly transitioned control to Panama in the late 20th century, releasing its grip on the canal totally by 1999.

One of the treaties governing that transition does ensure that the U.S. can intervene in the canal’s authority if Americans feel that there is a threat to the canal operating with neutrality.

In the readout of Rubio’s meeting with Mulino, Bruce wrote that Rubio emphasized to Mulino that Trump “has made a preliminary determination that the current position of influence and control of the Chinese Communist Party over the Panama Canal area is a threat to the canal and represents a violation of the Treaty.”

“We gave the Panama Canal to Panama. We didn’t give it to China. They’ve abused that gift,” Trump said at an early January press conference at Mar-a-Lago.

Following the meeting with Rubio, Mulino said during a press conference Sunday that Panama is looking into ending its involvement with China’s Silk Road Initiative early, and he said that whether the country is able to end the agreement early or not, he will not renew the agreement when it is up in a few years. The initiative is a cornerstone of China’s foreign policy.