The President of Panama, José Raúl Mulino, said on Thursday that he held a “very positive” meeting with a bipartisan delegation of the US Congress that visited the country, to which he explained about the reality of the Interoceanic Channel and was thus able to “deny many of the things” that have been poured in recent months against the administration of the interoceanic route from the White House.
“I expanded, explained to them and denied many things. It was a very positive meeting, especially because it was largely music to their ears (…) they were not aware of many of the things I raised there,” Mulino reported during his weekly press conference, specifying that on Wednesday he received five congressmen from the Republican and Democratic parties.
Mulino has categorically and steadily rejected the denunciation of US President Donald Trump that China controls the Panama Canal due to the presence of a Hong Kong operator in two of the five ports that exist around the road, and has replied that the navigable passage “is and will remain” Panamanian in the face of his colleague’s statement that he will recover it for the United States, which built and managed it in the last century for more than 80 years.
To the American congressmen “I explained what the channel has been in 25 years (in the hands of the Panamanian State), the before and now, the expanded channel, the investment that that represented for the Panamanian State (…) Anyway, general issues that we Panamanians dominate, but that I felt was a good occasion, because as they told me, that information will flow upwards,” he added.
The United States transferred the Channel to Panama on December 31, 1999 due to the 1977 Torrijos-Carter Treaties. The Panamanian administration expanded the way through a project of 5.5 billion dollars in service since 2016 that has multiplied its income and its strategic value.
The United States is the main customer of the navigable passage, since 70% of the cargo that crosses it goes to or leaves it, followed by China and Japan.
According to press information, the US delegation was made up of Republican representatives Gary Palmer (Alabama), Randy Weber (Texas), Mariette Miller-Meeks (Iowa), Tom Kean (New Yersey) and Democrat Scott Peters (California), in addition to Mary Martin and Tuley Wrigth, head of the Energy Council of the Energy and Trade Committee of the House of Representatives and director of the Energy and Minorities Team of the same committee, respectively.
Mulino commented that the delegation did not talk to him about “any measure of the US Congress” against the Channel, as they have indicated information regarding alleged Trump requests and investigations by agencies in that country.
Regarding the investigation initiated by the United States Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) into seven maritime trade points, including the Panama Canal, to detect possible “unfavorable conditions” for its maritime transport in foreign trade, Mulino said that he is “happy that they are being instructed regarding the problem of cargo mobilization worldwide.”
Regarding the information released by the American network NBC News that Trump has asked the Pentagon to prepare several plans for his idea of regaining control of the Channel, the president of Panama said that it was a journalistic “re-release”.
“We have not been able to find any source with name and surname of that information, which in your language seemed more like a re-refrom than anything else. So if no one puts the signature to such an assertion, I don’t pay attention to it, he added.