Trump calls for free passage of US ships through Panama, Suez Canals

“American ships, both military and commercial, should be allowed to travel, free of charge, through the Panama and Suez Canals! Those canals would not exist without the United States of America,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“I’ve asked Secretary of State Marco Rubio to immediately take care of, and memorialise, this situation!” he added.

The Panama Canal, built by the United States in 1914 connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, carries about two-fifths of US container traffic each year. It was handed over to Panama in 1999.

Trump has repeatedly said earlier that he wants to regain control over the Panama Canal as Panama had violated the agreement by handing over the task of running the canal to China—a claim rejected by both Panama and China.

On Christmas Day last year, Trump posted on social media that the ‘wonderful soldiers of China’ were ‘lovingly, but illegally, operating the Panama Canal. Officials in Panama City and Beijing rejected this claim.

Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino had termed the claim ‘nonsense’, stressing that there was ‘absolutely no Chinese interference’ in the canal.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)