Spanish
Panama's President, José Raúl Mulino, demanded respect from the United States this Thursday and that it refrain from trying to drag the Central American country into the "geopolitical conflict" that the US government maintains with China.
"Let them (who) fight their problem in Washington or Beijing, but not in the Panamanian yard. Please respect that Panama is not part of that bilateral conflict of any kind with China," said the Head of State in his weekly press conference.
Mulino reacted this way after the U.S. Embassy said on Wednesday that the Donald Trump administration will replace in Panama "with secure American technology" 13 telecommunications equipment from the Chinese company Huawei, as part of the campaign to "counter China's malign influence" on the continent.
"That is a unilateral statement from the United States Embassy, which does not have to comment on decisions that concern the National Government (...) and much less (...) so that through that type of statements and approaches they try to drag Panama into a geopolitical China-United States conflict," said the ruler.
Mulino also requested "that the United States Embassy refrain from making public pronouncements regarding decisions that only the Panamanian Government makes, no matter how much cooperation may exist."
Panama, the head of state highlighted in relation to the bid between the US and China, "has its own government, its own territory and we are not going to be drawn into an international problem of such magnitude, where it simply does not concern us and we have nothing to play".
"And that's enough, because now wherever we go, everything is done by the Trump Government and everything is financed by the Trump Government, when it's a lie," said the Panamanian president.
This Thursday, the Ministry of Public Security explained in a statement that the replacement of Huawei telecommunications equipment announced on Wednesday by the U.S. is due to a technological incompatibility within the framework of an agreement with the U.S. Government to reactivate a public safety program initiated in 2017.
The Security portfolio spoke out a day after the US Embassy announced the project and maintained that the Trump Administration "is working with partners in our hemisphere to combat crime, safeguard our citizens, and protect the national security of our countries from the threat of the Chinese Communist Party".
Under the premise of alleged Chinese interference in the Panama Canal, Trump has threatened to reclaim the waterway, built and operated by the U.S. in the last century, until its transfer to the Panamanian State 25 years ago.
Panama has denied that China or another country interferes in the administration of the Canal, which has the United States as its main user, and has clarified that the sovereignty over the route, which "is and will remain Panamanian" in Mulino's words, is not under discussion.
In that context, the Mulino and Trump governments have signed security agreements that have been harshly criticized in Panama, where the opposition and analysts accuse a violation of the Canal Neutrality Treaty and an alleged attitude of surrender by the Panamanian government, which denies it.
