Panama President ENDS Canal Deal With China After Meeting with Marco Rubio

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This is huge…

After meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the President of Panama has just agreed to end a key Panama Canal deal with China.

President José Raúl Mulino announced today that Panama will not renew their contracts with China from 2017, which are part of a CCP development initiative.

Take a look:

Fox News reported:

Panama’s president vowed Sunday to end a key development deal with China after meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and after complaints from President Donald Trump that the Latin American country had ceded control over its critical shipping canal to Beijing.

José Raúl Mulino, Panama’s president, said his nation’s sovereignty over the 51-mile waterway, which connects the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, will remain unchanged. But he said he would not renew a 2017 memorandum of understanding to join China’s Belt and Road global development initiative and that Panama would instead look to work more closely with the U.S.

“I think this visit opens the door to build new relations … and try to increase as much as possible U.S. investments in Panama,” Mulino told reporters after meeting with Rubio on his first international trip since being confirmed.

Rubio, who was a senator representing Florida before Trump tapped him to be America’s top diplomat, said his team is ready to push the U.S. agenda.

The Economic Times added:

Panama will not renew its participation in China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), President José Raúl Mulino announced after a meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The decision makes Panama the first Latin American country to withdraw from the global infrastructure initiative.
Mulino stated that the agreement is set for renewal in the next one to two years, and his government will evaluate the possibility of terminating it earlier. “We’ll study the possibility of terminating it early,” he said. Panama initially joined the initiative in 2017 under a previous administration.

“I do not feel that there is any real threat at this time against the (neutrality) treaty, its validity,

and much less the use of military force to make the treaty,” Mulino said, adding that it will be important to have face-to-face talks with Trump.

The BRI, launched by China in 2013, has served as a key mechanism for Beijing to extend its global economic influence by financing infrastructure projects in various countries. Panama joined the initiative in 2017 during the administration of former President Juan Carlos Varela, securing increased Chinese investments in infrastructure.


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