Panama’s President Says There Will Be No Negotiation Over Canal’s Ownership: ‘It’s Impossible’

A tanker ship enters the Panama Canal from the Pacific side on Oct. 25, 2024. Martin Bernetti/AFP via Getty Images

Panama’s president said on Jan. 30 that he would not hold any negotiations about ownership of the Panama Canal, following President Donald Trump’s suggestion that the United States would take ownership of the waterway again.

In his weekly press conference on Jan. 30, Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino said he wanted to clarify confusion about China’s role in the canal and said Panama controls the canal.

“It’s impossible, I can’t negotiate,” Mulino said when asked about returning the canal to U.S. control. “That is done. The canal belongs to Panama.”

Referring to future dialogues with U.S. officials, he said that he wants to “clear all the garbage from the path, clean the table, and be able to speak with the United States and very frankly” about issues including illegal immigration, drug trafficking, and regional security.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is scheduled to meet with Mulino on Feb. 2 and visit the canal.

When asked whether Panama could remove concessions from companies linked to China, Mulino said this was not on the table and that the government was awaiting the results of a review of CK Hutchison’s payments to the state, an audit that was announced shortly after Trump’s accusation that China controls the waterway.

“This is not a country that takes away and breaks laws. If I do that because they are Chinese companies or take away a concession just like that because someone asked me to, that is not the climate we want to project as a country to foreign investors,” he said. “Panama respects the rule of law.”

The United States built the canal in the early 1900s as it looked for ways to facilitate the transit of commercial and military vessels between its coasts. But Washington relinquished control of the waterway to Panama on Dec. 31, 1999, under a treaty signed in 1977 by then-President Jimmy Carter.

Linking the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea in the North Atlantic, it’s considered one of the most important trade routes in the world. About 40 percent of U.S. container ships passed through it in 2023, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

When he was inaugurated on Jan. 20, Trump said in his address that American ships were being “severely overcharged“ and treated unfairly, saying that the Chinese regime ”is operating the Panama Canal.” Previously, Trump has said that the United States could demand to again reassert ownership over the canal.

Earlier this week, a group of bipartisan U.S. senators expressed concern about Chinese regime influence over the canal.

“Chinese companies are building a bridge across the canal—at a slow pace so as to take nearly a decade—and control container ports at either end,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said at a hearing on the canal’s role in U.S. trade.

“The partially completed bridge gives China the ability to block the canal without warning, and the ports give China ready observation posts to time that action. This situation poses acute risks to U.S. national security.”

He suggested that Panama may be violating the canal’s neutrality treaty.

If the United States takes action in some way to reassert control over the canal, it may draw other countries into the fray. Earlier this month, a top Russian Foreign Ministry official warned that Moscow expects that Panama’s leadership and the Trump administration will adhere to the “current international legal regime of this key waterway.”

“Russia has been a party to the protocol since 1988 and reaffirms its obligations to respect the permanent neutrality of the Panama Canal, advocating for keeping this international transit waterway safe and open,” the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated, saying that the canal legally belongs to Panama, according to state-run media outlet TASS.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.