Panama’s president shot down President-elect Donald Trump’s threat on Sunday that the US would call on the Central American country to cede control of the Panama Canal if it continued to charge “exorbitant” fees to use the critical shipping channel, Report informs via New York Post.
Panama President José Raúl Mulino came out swinging against Trump’s suggestion that the US could demand it regain control of the century-old waterway when he assumes office next month.
“I want to express precisely that every square meter of the Panama Canal and its adjacent area belong to Panama, and will continue to,” Mulino said in a statement posted on social media.
“The sovereignty and independence of our country are not negotiable. Every Panamanian, here or anywhere in the world, carries it in their heart, and it is part of our history of struggle and irreversible conquest.”
Trump first made noise about the key route on Saturday before he addressed the topic again during a speech Sunday at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest.
“We’re being ripped off at the Panama Canal like we’re being ripped off everywhere else,” he said in front of thousands in Arizona.
The US built the canal in the early 1900s to help commercial and military ships travel between its coasts but gave up ownership of the waterway in 1999 more than 20 years after President Jimmy Carter signed a treaty with Panama.
“If the principles, both moral and legal, of this magnanimous gesture of giving are not followed, then we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to the United States of America, in full, quickly and without question,” Trump said.
“I’m not going to stand for it,” the Republican continued. “So to the officials of Panama, please be guided accordingly.”
Trump, 78, has previously had his sights set on territories that belong to other nations, including musing in recent weeks he’d liked to see Canada become a US state.
He also, on Sunday, floated the idea of buying Greenland, which is an autonomous territory of Denmark, when he announced PayPal cofounder Ken Howery as US ambassador to the European country.
Mulino, who was elected in May, said Sunday that rates established for shippers using the canal — which has 14,000 vessels pass through yearly — aren’t set on a whim.
“They are and will be established, publicly and in an open audience, considering market conditions, international conditions, operating costs and the maintenance and modernization needs of the interoceanic waterway,” he said.
“We Panamanians may think differently in many aspects, but when it comes to our Canal and our sovereignty, we all unite under a single flag, that of Panama,” he added.