Panama to End Relationship with China’s Premier Foreign Investment Program After US Pressure; Panama Bids Belt and Road Program Goodbye After Rubio Visit

Panama to end relationship with China’s premier foreign investment program after US pressure:

Panama says it will not renew its agreement involving China’s premier foreign investment program after Panamanian leaders met with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, marking another victory for President Trump.

Panama will allow its 2017 trade and development pact involving China’s “Belt and Road Initiative” to expire, said Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino at a press conference Sunday — after months of threats by Trump to take back the Panama Canal, claiming “American ships are being severely overcharged” and accusing China of “operating” the crucial waterway.

Mulino even said he will explore options to see if his country’s involvement in the agreement can end sooner than the one or two years it may take for it.

The “Belt and Road Initiative” — established in 2013 as China’s main project for investing in foreign infrastructure — has ultimately increased its influence around the world.

Mulino said Panama would be interested in the US investing in the country’s infrastructure instead.

But the Panamanian president made sure to add that the canal’s sovereignty is still under Panama.

Panama’s announcement that it would be ending its involvement in China’s major investment program occurred the day before Mexico also caved over Trump’s new 25% tariff on Mexican products.

Trump and Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum announced Monday that they had agreed to a one-month pause on the across-the-board tariff by the US in exchange for concessions on border security by Mexico while a broader deal gets negotiated.

Rubio, during his trip to Panama, had warned that the US would act to end China’s influence over the canal, saying that as long as the Chinese Communist Party is in power, China is a threat to the international treaty that is supposed to ensure the canal remains neutral. —>READ MORE HERE

Panama bids Belt and Road program goodbye after Rubio visit:

First fruit of Trump pressure campaign draws angry Chinese response

When Panama signed up for China’s vast Belt and Road Initiative in 2017, it became the first country in Latin America to join the massive international infrastructure financing project that Beijing has used to win friends and expand its global influence.

Five years later, Panama will be the first country in the Western Hemisphere to withdraw from the Belt and Road program, the first fruit of President Trump’s pressure campaign in the region.

Although it was overlooked amid talks on illegal immigration and the future of the Panama Canal, Secretary of State Marco Rubio was quick to claim victory after visiting Panama over the weekend on the Belt and Road issue. Previous U.S. administrations have looked at the program uneasily as a means for the ruling Chinese Communist Party to win global clout and ensnare participating countries in damaging debt.

President Jose Raul Molina’s announcement Sunday that Panama will let its participation in China’s Belt and Road Initiative expire “is a great step forward for U.S.-Panama relations, a free Panama Canal, and another example of [President Trump’s] leadership to protect our national security and deliver prosperity for the American people,” Mr. Rubio wrote on social media after leaving Panama for a stop in El Salvador.

One measure of the U.S. breakthrough was the quick and angry reaction from Beijing, which kept a relatively low profile as Mr. Trump began a whirlwind to his presidency on the domestic and foreign policy fronts.

Panama’s decision was “regrettable,” Fu Cong, the Chinese ambassador to the United Nations, told reporters in New York. “The smear campaign that is launched by the U.S. and some of the other Western countries on the Belt and Road Initiative is totally groundless.”

After meeting with Mr. Rubio, Mr. Molina agreed not to renew the memorandum of understanding that his predecessor signed with China on the former senator’s first foreign trip as America’s top diplomat.

“He’s a friend of America, [and] Panama is a strong partner and ally of the United States,” Mr. Rubio said Monday. He called his discussions with Mr. Molina “frank and respectful.”

Although Mr. Trump has focused much of his public criticism of Panama on its operation of the canal and what he says is growing Chinese influence over the operation of the America-built waterway, a top Republican in Congress said the Belt and Road decision could prove just as consequential.

Rep. Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican and former chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said China’s encroachment into the Western Hemisphere — including contracts by a Hong Kong company to operate critical ports at both ends of the Panama Canal — amounted to a “clear and present danger” to U.S. interests in Latin America.

“The Biden administration was asleep at the wheel, focusing on promoting woke policies abroad while China consolidated power in our own backyard,” he said. “I’m thrilled to see Secretary Rubio and the Trump administration already course-correcting, charting a new path for the U.S. and our neighbors in Latin America.”

He said Panama’s decision to cancel its Belt and Road contract with China was “a tremendous victory — not only for the United States but also for the Panamanian people who are escaping [China’s] debt trap diplomacy.”

Critics accuse Beijing of using the Belt and Road Initiative to lure developing countries into signing up for unsustainable loans for infrastructure projects. When the nation faces financial challenges or the project does not generate the expected return, China can seize the assets or demand crippling payments in return. —>READ MORE HERE

Source

Jesus Christ is King