Panama’s President Jose Raul Mulino on Thursday ruled out negotiations with the United States over ownership of the Panama Canal as he prepares to host Donald Trump’s Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Trump, in his inaugural address on January 20, alleged that China was effectively “operating” the waterway which the United States handed to the Central American nation in 1999.
We didn’t give it to China, we gave it to Panama. And we’re taking it back,” Trump said.
But Mulino said opening negotiations on ownership of the canal “is impossible.”
“I cannot negotiate, much less open a process of negotiations on the canal. That (the matter) is sealed. The canal is Panama’s,” he said at his weekly press conference.
Panama, long a friend of the United States, has complained to the United Nations over Trump’s threat.
Nevertheless, Mulino said there are common issues such as migration and the fight against organized crime and drug trafficking that he would be happy to discuss with Rubio when he visits in the coming days.
“We are more than willing to talk with respect and very clearly… with the secretary of state,” said the president, without giving a date for the meeting.
Rubio’s first trip abroad as Trump’s top envoy will take him to Panama, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic.