The agreements reached between Panama and the United States regarding the payment of tolls for US warships or greater security cooperation do not mean a cession of Panamanian sovereignty over the interoceanic canal, the Panamanian government stated this past Wednesday.
“We want to establish that at no time during this memorandum of understanding has Panama ceded sovereignty over the Panama Canal or any of its adjacent areas. Panama remains within the framework of the Neutrality Treaty,” declared Panamanian Minister of Public Security, Frank Ábrego, in a joint press conference with US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
Both officials spoke to the press on the sidelines of the opening of the Central American Security Conference (Centsec). “We are focused on working together with our Panamanian partners to ensure that China’s malicious influence cannot continue to take root and that it is effectively expelled from the Panama Canal Zone,” Hegseth said.
Outsed China
The Pentagon chief maintained at the conference that “the Panama Canal and the canal zones cannot and will not be controlled by China.” Statements that are part of President Donald Trump‘s recurring rhetoric about China’s influence in the waterway, which has been rejected by the Panamanian government and also by Beijing.
US warships pass freely
At the press conference with Ábrego, the US official highlighted the agreements with Panama to increase cooperation on waterway security and to ensure that US warships can pass through it expeditiously and freely.
These issues were outlined in a joint statement released by the Panamanian government, in which Hegseth recognized “Panama’s leadership and inalienable sovereignty over the Canal and its adjacent areas” and Panama reaffirmed the Central American country’s decision to abandon China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino “established yesterday” in the joint statement with the Pentagon chief, “that Secretary Hegseth, in their private meeting, recognized Panama’s sovereignty over the Panama Canal and acknowledged that the Neutrality Treaty that governs it must be respected.”
No US military bases
Regarding the strengthening of military cooperation, “Panama clarified through President Mulino that we cannot accept military bases or defense sites” in the country, the Panamanian Minister of Security added.
Ábrego emphasized that the US and Panama have conducted joint exercises and maintained security cooperation for more than 18 years, so “these issues are not new.”
In the joint statement issued Tuesday, Panama and the US agreed to “revitalize the High-Level Security Dialogue and direct it toward a robust bilateral planning and preparedness agenda that prioritizes the security and defense of the Canal, within the framework of the Panama Canal Neutrality Treaty and the National Constitution.”
Panama and the US established in that statement that they will work to identify “a mechanism to compensate for the payment of tolls and fees” that US warships incur for crossing the waterway, one of Trump’s complaints.
