One day after the Panamanian foreign minister accused Beijing of stepping up inspections of Panama-flagged ships in retaliation for Hong Kong’s CK Hutchison Holdings losing its port concession, Panama’s President Mulino on Thursday tried to ease tensions with China, emphasizing that Panama has no intention of clashing with China and hopes the situation will cool down.
While inspecting Balboa Port on the Pacific side of the Panama Canal, Mulino said, “We have no intention... of having problems with China. I hope... the situation can cool down... we can return to normal political relations, and understand that this is an issue that will be resolved.”
When asked about Panama-flagged ships being detained at Chinese ports, Mulino said that such inspections are not uncommon in global shipping, and said similar trends have affected other major ship registry countries, including Liberia and the Marshall Islands. He added that Panama is still assessing the situation.
He said, “These have nothing to do with political retaliation,” but added that Panama has expressed concern to the Chinese authorities and wishes to confirm the basis for detaining ships for inspection.
At the end of January, Panama’s Supreme Court announced the legal framework supporting the 1997 granting of rights to CK Hutchison Holdings’ Panama Ports Company to operate the two ports is invalid, a decision that met with opposition from Beijing.
Before this termination ruling was made, the United States had pressured Panama to curb China’s influence around the strategic canal, which handles 5% of global maritime trade.