Panama has complained to the UN over US President Donald Trump’s “worrying” threat to seize the Panama Canal, even as it launched an audit of the Hong Kong-linked operator of two ports on the interoceanic waterway.
In a letter addressed to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the government in Panama City referred to an article of the UN Charter precluding any member from “the threat or use of force” against the territorial integrity or political independence of another.
The missive, distributed to reporters on Tuesday, urges Guterres to refer the matter to the UN Security Council, without asking for a meeting to be convened.
Photo: AFP
Trump, in his inaugural address on Monday, repeated a complaint that China was effectively “operating” the Panama Canal through its growing presence around the waterway, which the US handed over at the end of 1999.
“We didn’t give it to China, we gave it to Panama. And we’re taking it back,” Trump said.
The Panamanian comptroller’s office, which oversees public entities, announced “an exhaustive audit” would be launched “aimed at ensuring the efficient and transparent use of public resources” at Panama Ports Co.
The company, part of Hutchison Ports, a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based conglomerate CK Hutchison Holdings, operates the ports of Balboa and Cristobal on either end of the canal.
The comptroller’s office said the aim was to determine whether Panama Ports was complying with its concession agreements, including adequate reporting of income, payments and contributions to the state.
Hutchison Ports said in a statement that it has “maintained and will continue to maintain a transparent and collaborative relationship” with Panamanian authorities.
“We remain steadfast in our commitment to comply with all laws and regulations, fully exercising our contractual responsibilities,” the firm said.
“Our financial results, audited by an independent external auditor, have been shared annually with our partner, the Panamanian State, ensuring trust and clarity in our management,” it said.
Panama’s President Jose Raul Mulino has denied that any other nation was interfering in the canal, which he said was operated on a principle of neutrality.
“The canal is and will remain Panama’s,” Mulino said.
Trump has been raising pressure for weeks over the canal, through which 40 percent of US container traffic travels.
The Panama Ports concession agreement was extended by 25 years in 2021.
The US is the canal’s main user, followed by China.
Since 2000, the waterway has contributed more than US$30 billion to Panama’s state coffers, including nearly US$2.5 billion in the last fiscal year.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
RSS