The US Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday that the Panama canal faces continuous threats from China, but that the United States and Panama are safe.
Hegseth’s remarks have sparked an ardent response from the Chinese government, which said: “Who represents the real threat to the canal? People will make their own judgment.”
Speaking during a ribbon cup for a new quay funded by the United States at the Naval base of Vasco Nuñez de Balboa after a meeting with the president of Panama, José Raúl Mulino, Hegseth said that the United States would not authorize China or any other country to threaten the channel operation.
“To this end, the United States and Panama have done more in recent weeks to strengthen our defense and security cooperation than for decades,” he said.
Hegseth alluded to the ports at each end of the canal which are controlled by a consortium of Hong Kong, which is selling its control participation in another consortium, including BlackRock Inc.
“Chinese companies continue to control critical infrastructure in the canal area,” said Hegseth. “This gives China the potential to carry out surveillance activities through Panama.
Hegseth met Mulino for two hours Tuesday morning before going to the naval base which had previously been the American naval station.
On the way, Hegseth published a photo on Twitter / X of the two men laughing and said that it was an honor by speaking with Mulino. “You and the hard work of your country make a difference. Increased security cooperation will make our two nations safer, stronger and more prosperous, “he wrote.
The visit comes in the middle of the tensions on the repeated statements of Donald Trump that the United States is overcharged to use the Panama Canal and that China has an influence on its operations – allegations that Panama has denied.
Shortly after the meeting, the Panama Chinese Embassy criticized the US government in an X declaration, claiming that the United States has used “blackmail” to advance its own interests and that with whom Panama exercises business with a “sovereign decision of Panama … and something that the United States has no right to interfere”.
“The United States has carried out a sensationalist campaign on the” Chinese theoretical threat “in order to sabotage Chinese-Panamanian cooperation, which is simply rooted in the own geopolitical interests of the state of the United States,” the embassy wrote.
After Hegseth and Mulino spoke by telephone in February, the US State Department said that an agreement had been concluded so as not to invoice the American warships to cross the canal. Mulino publicly denied that there was such an agreement.
The American president went so far as to suggest that the United States should never have put the channel back to Panama and that perhaps it should bring the channel back.
China’s concern was aroused by the Hong Kong consortium with a 25 -year lease on the ports at each end of the canal. The Panamanian government announced that the lease was audited and late on Monday concluded that there were irregularities.
The Hong Kong Consortium, however, has already announced that CK Hutchison would sell its control participation in the ports in a consortium, including BlackRock Inc, indeed putting the ports under American control once the sale is completed.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Mulino during a visit in February that Trump thought that China’s presence in the canal area could rape a treaty that led the United States to transform the navigable path in Panama in 1999. This treaty calls for permanent neutrality of the channel built by the United States.
Mulino denied that China has an influence in the operations of the canal. In February, he expressed his frustration in the face of the persistence of the story. “We are not going to talk about what is not reality, but rather the questions that interest the two countries,” he said.
The United States built the canal in the early 1900s when it was looking for the means to facilitate the transit of commercial and military ships between its coast. Washington abandoned control of the Panama navigable track on December 31, 1999, under a treaty signed in 1977 by Jimmy Carter.
“I want to be very clear, China has not built this channel,” HegSeth said on Tuesday. “China does not use this channel and China will not hold this channel. With Panama in mind, we will keep the channel safe and available for all nations by the deterrent power of the strongest, most effective and deadly combat force in the world. ”
