After US President-elect Donald Trump threatened to take back the Panama Canal, China on Monday supported Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino’s claim that every square meter of the canal and the surrounding area belongs to his country. China supported Mulino’s statement regarding its country’s sovereignty over the Panama Canal. Earlier, Trump had accused the Central American country of charging exorbitant prices for US ships and naval vessels. The BBC quoted Mulino as saying that Panama’s sovereignty and independence cannot be compromised.
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When Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning was asked to comment on this in a media briefing, he said that the Panama Canal is a great creation of the people of Panama. It is the golden waterway of connectivity between countries. China has always supported the Panamanian people in their just struggle for sovereignty over the Canal. China will, as always, respect Panama’s sovereignty over the Canal and recognize the Canal as a permanently neutral international waterway. Earlier, Trump had said that if shipping rates were not reduced, the United States would demand that the Panama Canal be returned quickly and without questions.
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The Panama Canal, an 82-kilometre-long waterway, bisects the Central American nation and is the main link between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. It was built in the early 1900s, with the US maintaining control over the Canal Zone until 1977, when treaties gradually ceded the land back to Panama. After a period of joint control, Panama took sole control in 1999. According to a BBC report, 14,000 ships transit the canal annually, including container ships and military ships carrying cars, natural gas and other goods.
