“China is operating the Panama Canal and we didn’t give it to China. We gave it to Panama and we’re taking it back,” Donald Trump said in his inaugural ceremony .
It was reported that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is going to visit Panama in late January. People are linking his visit to Donald Trump’s statement of taking it back.
Travel dates are still not fixed but likely to happen between January last week and February first week. During his foreign visit, he would be focusing on the two most prioritized issues -these include curtailing illegal migration and Trump’s remark on the Panama Canal.The Panama Canal is a crucial trade route for the US, with around 40% of the nation’s container ships passing through the waterway connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
He has repeatedly suggested that the US may use force to take back the Panama Canal which is one of the main routes for world shipping. Although he has not clarified about how he will reclaim the Canal, he refused to use military force.
The Panamanian government has denied all the allegations of breaking promises for the final transfer of strategic waterway in 1999.
Mulino responded “be serious, be serious” on Wednesday when asked in Davos whether he was concerned the US would invade after President Donald Trump said he would take back the Panama Canal.”The Panama Canal was not a concession or a gift from the United States,” he said in the World Economic Forum (WEF) session, adding that it came into being through a series of treaties dating back to 1903.