(COMBO) This combination of file pictures created on December 22, 2024 shows a handout picture released by the Panamanian Presidency of President Jose Raul Mulino (L) speaking during a press conference at the Las Garzas government palace in Panama City, on October 3, 2024 and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump speaks at a news conference at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort on December 16, 2024 in Palm Beach, Florida. (Photo by Handout and Andrew Harnik / various sources / AFP)
Panama City: Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino on Thursday ruled out negotiations with US President-elect Donald Trump over control of the Panama Canal, denying that China was interfering in its operation.
Mulino also rejected the possibility of reducing tolls for US vessels in response to Trump's threat to demand control of the vital waterway connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans be returned to Washington.
"There's nothing to talk about," Mulino told a press conference.
"The canal is Panamanian and belongs to Panamanians. There's no possibility of opening any kind of conversation around this reality, which has cost the country blood, sweat and tears," he added.
The canal, inaugurated in 1914, was built by the United States but handed to Panama on December 31, 1999, under treaties signed some two decades earlier by then-US president Jimmy Carter and Panamanian nationalist leader Omar Torrijos.
Trump on Saturday slammed what he called "ridiculous" fees for US ships passing through the canal and hinted at China's growing influence.
"It was solely for Panama to manage, not China, or anyone else," Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform. "We would and will NEVER let it fall into the wrong hands!"
If Panama could not ensure "the secure, efficient and reliable operation" of the channel, "then we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to us, in full, and without question," he said.
