Trump Hopes To Talk With Mulino Friday To Discuss The Panama Canal

(MENAFN- Newsroom Panama) US President Donald Trump said on Monday that he plans to speak with his Panamanian counterpart, José Raúl Mulino, on Friday to discuss the Panama Canal and the commitments announced following Secretary of State Marco Rubio's visit to the country. “I think we're going to talk to Panama on Friday. Essentially, they've committed to certain things, but I'm not happy with it,” the president said from the Oval Office in the White House. “We are trying to reach an agreement on the Panama Canal,” said Trump, who again criticized the fact that China's influence in this important maritime passage has increased in recent years, despite the fact that the United States, he said, built it and wrongly ceded it to Panama with the Torrijos-Carter Treaties of 1977. Mulino announced on Sunday that he will let the new Silk Road agreement with China expire, after meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who visited Panama to lobby against alleged Chinese influence in the canal and its ports.

New Direction in the Relationship with the US and China: Trump Sets the Pace, Panama Adjusts the Pace:

Trump announced that he will hold a telephone conversation with Mulino next Friday, a call that could define the course of the relationship between both countries and the strategic future of the Canal. Although Panama announced a series of measures that include distancing itself from China and expedited passage for United States (US) warships through the Panama Canal, this is not enough for the president of that nation, Donald Trump, who said he is not happy. “China is involved with the Panama Canal. They won't be there for long, and that's the way it should be,” he said from his office in the White House.

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