Politico: After Trump’s threats… Panama’s president may resort to the UN Security Council

Panama’s President Jose Raul Mulino may decide to resort to the UN Security Council if US President-elect Donald Trump does not stop pressuring the country over the Panama Canal issue.

This was reported by Politico, which quoted former Panamanian President Ernesto Perez Balladares as saying that Mulino  told him this last Wednesday, and assured him that if Trump continued to threaten his country, it could push him to resort to the UN Security Council (in 2025-2026, Panama will become a non-permanent member of the council).

The former Panama president said in an interview with the newspaper that Mulino  is waiting for Trump’s inauguration to then assess further developments in the situation.

“Mulino  said he would take further action after January 20 if Trump insisted on continuing to raise this issue,” Balladares added.

According to the newspaper, Mulino ‘s comments came in response to Trump’s statement, in which he refused to provide any guarantees that he wouldn’t use military force to regain control of the Panama Canal and annex Greenland, an autonomous region of Denmark, to the United States.

A few days ago, the US President-elect confirmed in a conversation with reporters in Washington that he wouldn’t allow China to manage the Panama Canal.

“They gave it to them for a dollar, and now they’re asking for more money from American ships,” Trump said.

“We’re not going to let that happen… China runs the Panama Canal; we’re not going to let that happen”.

On December 22, Trump stated that he would demand a quick return of the Panama Canal to US ownership due to the high tariffs for transportation and ships passing through it, stressing that the canal is of great importance to US trade, as well as to the operational deployment of US naval forces in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

Trump stressed that the transfer of control of the canal in 1999 was a gesture of cooperation and not a concession to other countries.