A day after the president Donald Trump will announce large tariffs for Canada and Mexicocausing reprisals from those countries, the United States Secretary of State, Marco RubioHe was preparing for a perhaps less confrontative and more diplomatic approach.
The US official will meet this Sunday with the president of Panama, José Raúl Mulinoon the first scale of his first trip abroad as the main American diplomat.
This, while Trump increases the pressure on Washington’s neighbors and allies, including a demand for the Panama Canal Be returned to the US
After the conversations with Mulino, Rubio plans to visit an energy installation and then the channel, object of the intense interest of the American ruler.
The Panamanian president has said that there will be no negotiation with the United States about the property of the channel, and some of his nationals have made protests on Trump’s plans. Mulino said he expected Rubio’s visit to focus on shared interests, such as migration and the fight against drug trafficking.
Rubio will highlight Trump’s main approach, stop illegal immigration, but has also said that he will carry the message that the US wants to claim control over the Panama Canal, despite the intense resistance of regional leaders to combat the growing influence of China on the continent.
Rubio’s position
In an opinion article in the Wall Street JournalRubio said that mass migration, drugs and hostile policies in Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela have wreaked havoc, and port facilities at both ends of the channel are managed by a company based in China, leaving the pressure vulnerable to the pressure Beijing.
“We are going to address that issue”Rubio said one day before. “The president has been quite clear that he wants to manage the channel again. Obviously, Panamanians don’t like that idea very much. That message has been transmitted very clearly ”he added.
The channel, built by Americans, was delivered to the Panamanians in 1999 and they firmly oppose Trump’s demand to return it.
In spite Hutchison Ports with headquarters in Hong Kongwhich was given an extension of 25 years without tender to operate them. An audit on the suitability of that extension is already ongoing and could lead to a new tender.
What is not clear is whether Trump would accept the transfer of the concession to an American or European company as compliance with its demands, which seem to cover more than just operations.
The trip of Rubio, who will also go to El Salvador, Costa Rica, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic, occurs in the middle of a freezing of foreign assistance in the United States. The State Department said on Sunday that Rubio approved exemptions for certain critical programs in the countries he is visiting, but the details are unknown.
With AP information
Source: Gestion
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