Lapatilla
The Chinese government criticized this Friday “the pressure and coercion” of the United States after Panama’s decision not to renew the cooperation agreement with China on the infrastructure project of the new Silk routes, led by Beijing.
The spokesman of the Chinese Foreign Ministry Lin Jian declared today at a press conference that his country “firmly opposes the actions of the United States to discredit and undermine cooperation” in the framework of the new Silkhail routes “through the pressure and coercion ”.
Lin said that “more than 20 Latin American countries have participated with enthusiasm” in the initiative and that “the results have benefited the peoples of all countries, including Panama.”
“In recent years, China and Panama have achieved a fruitful cooperation,” added the spokesman, while saying that the new silk routes “have continually benefited the peoples of the two countries.”
China “expects the Panamanian part to make the right decision in the light of the general situation of bilateral relations and the long -term interests of the peoples of the two countries, without external interference,” Lin said.
Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino announced that he will expire that agreement after meeting on Sunday with the United States Secretary of State, Marco Rubio.
Mulino explained that he transferred to Rubio his decision not to renew the memorandum of understanding of the new Silk routes, signed with China in November 2017, under the mandate of the then Panamanian president, Juan Carlos Varela.
On several occasions, the US president, Donald Trump, has threatened to “take” the Panama Canal and criticized the decision of the late former president Jimmy Carter (1977-1981) to negotiate the treaties that allowed the transfer of the channel to Panama, a process which was completed in 1999. In addition, Trump has assured that the channel is under Beijing control.
China, meanwhile, has insisted that it does not participate in the management or operation of the channel, which recognizes as an “neutral international infrastructure” in whose issues “has never interfered.”
The new Silk routes is an investment and commercial cooperation initiative promoted by the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, in 2013 to link China with Europe, the Middle East, Africa and, more recently, Latin America, something that has aroused concern in Washington before the growing influence of the Asian giant in the region.
EFE
