Donald Trump threatened to take control of the Panama Canal. Sharp reaction from the president of Panama

– Every square meter of the Panama Canal and the surrounding area belongs to Panama and will belong to it, said President Jose Raul Mulino in a video published on Platform X. He added that Panama's sovereignty and independence are non-negotiable.

Mulino reacted to the statement Donald Trumpwho responded with a laconic “we'll see!”.

President-elect Donald Trump threatened on Sunday that United States will again take control of the Panama Canal, accusing the Panamanian authorities of charging too high fees for the use of the isthmus connecting the waters of the Atlantic Ocean with the waters of the Pacific Ocean.

Speaking to a crowd of supporters in Arizona, Trump also said he would not allow the channel to fall into the “wrong hands,” referring to China. Later in the day, Trump posted a photo of an American flag flying over the Panama Canal on his social media platform, Truth Social. “Welcome to the United States Channel,” he wrote.

Trump argued that treaties allowing Panama to take control of the canal first allowed the U.S. to regain it. “If the moral and legal principles of this generous gesture of donation are not respected, we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to us in full and without questions asked,” the president-elect wrote on the Truth Social platform.

Politico points out that while China has expanded its presence in Latin America and the Hong Kong-based company operates two ports at the canal's entrance and exit, no PRC commercial or government entity plays a direct role in managing ship traffic on this critical route. water. The canal is administered by an independent government agency in Panama, and Beijing has not made any recent gestures indicating it wants to buy the canal or expand its presence in the country.

In 1903, the United States signed a treaty with Panama that allowed it to build a canal connecting the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. Panama receives revenue generated by this waterway. Washington guaranteed the neutrality of the canal and control of territory on both sides of it. The region, known as the Panama Canal Zone, was administered by the United States, and American law applied to the region's inhabitants.

After decades of tensions over the canal, President Jimmy Carter's administration signed two treaties in 1977 with Panama's military dictator, Omar Torrijos, to hand over control of this key shipping lane by the end of 1999. The U.S. retains the right to defend the canal against any threat to its neutrality.

As the Politico website emphasizes, analysts do not believe that the provisions of the treaty will allow Washington to legally regain control of the canal.

It is estimated that approximately 5 percent of global maritime traffic passes through the Panama Canal. The Canal Authority announced that last year it achieved record revenues of almost $5 billion.

The main users of the passage, which allows you to shorten the journey from Asia to the east coast of the United States, are Americans, Chinese, Japanese and Koreans – writes the Voice of America website.