Panama City, Jan 7 (EFE).- Panamanian Foreign Minister Javier Martinez-Acha said Tuesday that the Panama Canal is a permanent asset in the country after United States President-elect Donald Trump said he could use military force to regain control of the interoceanic waterway.
«I reiterate what (Panamanian) President Jose Raul Mulino has already said: the sovereignty of our canal is not negotiable and is part of our history of struggle and an irreversible conquest,» Martinez-Acha said during a statement to the press.
He added that «when the president-elect (Trump) takes office» on Jan. 20, «the relationship between the US and Panama will be handled through formal, usual and appropriate channels.»
At a press conference Tuesday, Trump was asked if he ruled out the use of «military or economic coercion» to achieve his goal of regaining control of the Panama Canal and the island of Greenland (Denmark), to which he replied «no, I cannot assure you that I will rule out either of those two options.»
On Dec. 20, Panama commemorated the 35th anniversary of the US invasion of the country to capture dictator Manuel Antonio Noriega on drug trafficking charges, which left between 500 and 4,000 dead. The Central American country abolished its army after the foreign incursion.
Trump again accused the Central American country Tuesday of imposing excessive passage fees on American ships and said China controls the canal, statements that the Panamanian government has already rejected.
«The tolls are not made at the whim of the presidents and the administrator» of the canal, they are set in a «public and open process» in which clients and other actors participate, Mulino declared on Dec. 26, answering «no» when asked if the costs of the tolls would be reduced due to Trump’s complaints.
Martinez-Acha repeated Tuesday what President Mulino had already said before:
«The only hands that control the canal are Panamanian and that will continue to be the case,» denying once again Trump’s assertion that China controls the route that connects the Atlantic and the Pacific.
The canal was built by the US, which opened it in 1914 and administered it until its complete transfer to Panama in 1999, as established in the Torrijos-Carter Treaties, signed in 1977 in Washington by Panamanian leader Omar Torrijos, and American President Jimmy Carter.
There are treaties on permanent neutrality and the operation of the canal signed by the two countries in 1977. These ended the Hay-Bunau Varilla treaty of 1903 that gave the US the rights in perpetuity to build and use the canal started by the French, as explained to EFE by former Panamanian President Aristides Royo who negotiated the Torrijos-Carter Treaties.
«Our canal has the mission of serving humanity and its trade, that is one of the great values that we Panamanians offer to the world, giving the international community a guarantee of not taking part or being an active part in any conflict,» said the Panamanian foreign minister Tuesday.
The US is the main user of the canal, through which about 3 percent of world trade passes, followed far behind by China. The US is also Panama’s main commercial and political partner.
«We are a country open to dialogue today and always, to investments and to good relations, but with the clear motto that the Homeland comes first,» the Panamanian foreign minister said at the end of his statement. EFE
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