The United States government said Wednesday that Panama accepted not to charge its ships for the transit through the Panama Canal, thus saving “millions of dollars a year”, an announcement that arrives after the visit of the US Secretary of State ., Marco Rubio, to the Central American country in the midst of President Trump’s pressures for recovering it.
“The Panama Government has agreed not to collect more rates for the ships of the United States government that transit the Panama Canal, which allows it to save millions of dollars a year,” said the US Department of State. However, neither the Panamanian executive nor the authority of the Panama Canal, an entity under the Ministry of Affairs of the Panama Canal, have confirmed this announcement.
Maco Rubio visited Panama on February 2 to transfer the president of the country, José Raúl Mulino, the rejection by the United States to the alleged presence of China in the channel, where he exerts, according to Washington, a greater pressure. Subsequently, the Panamanian head of state announced that he would not renew the memorandum of understanding signed with China in November 2017 about the initiative of the Strip and the Route.
For his part, the US Secretary of Defense, Pete Heghseth, held an “introductory” conversation with Panama Public Security Minister Frank Alexis Ábrego, who emphasized that “his main priority is to safeguard security interests National US of Trump, which includes guaranteeing unrestricted access to the Panama Canal, free of foreign interference. “
“(Both) reaffirmed the commitment of the two countries with the defense of the channel and agreed to expand cooperation between the US Armed Forces and the Panama Security Forces,” said Hegseth spokesman John Ullyot. The head of the Pentagon also expressed his “thanks for the Panamanian efforts to stop transnational organized crime” and irregular migration, as well as for the “disposition” to accept migrants from third countries from US territory “for repatriation to their countries of origin “
His conversation occurred amid the tension between the two nations after the claim of the US president, Donald Trump, to “recover” the control of the Panama Canal for the alleged Chinese influence on the interoceanic route. Given this, the Panama government agreed not to renew the cooperation agreement with China on the new Silk route, among other measures.
The Panama Canal Authority, independent of the Panamanian Government, had already advanced Marco Rubio on Sunday that they would work with the US Navy to “optimize the priority in the transit of their ships” through the interoceanic route, although they had not given themselves More details. “The Panama Canal Authority told the Rubio Secretary his willingness to work with the Navy of that country, to optimize the priority in the transit of his ships through the Panama Canal,” the entity then reported, shortly after from the visit of the head of American diplomacy to the road, where he met with the administrator, Ricaurte Vásquez.
Trump bases his threats on the supposed presence of China on the road that joins the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and the “unfair” treatment towards the ships of the United States, despite the evidence of the official Panamanian information, which shows that the ships of the North American country pay the same rates as others, by virtue of the Neutrality Treaty.
According to data provided to the EFE agency by the Panama Canal, since 1998 at the end of fiscal year 2024 (26 years), of a total of 373,039 ships that traveled the channel, 994 (0.3%) correspond to transits of ships War and submarines of the United States Navy.
