Panama on January 7 pushed back hard against Donald Trump’s renewed claims about the Panama Canal, saying the waterway’s sovereignty is not open to negotiation. DW reported that Foreign Minister Javier Martinez-Acha said the canal belongs to Panama and that only Panamanians operate it.
The confrontation began after Trump repeated unsubstantiated claims that China was operating the canal and suggested he would not rule out military action to regain control. DW said the remarks came during a rambling news conference in Florida that was supposed to focus on Emirati investment in U.S. technology. Instead, Trump returned to one of his most provocative territorial themes.
Panama’s response was immediate and categorical. Martinez-Acha said the sovereignty of the canal was “not negotiable” and part of the country’s history of struggle. He also said President Jose Raul Mulino had already made Panama’s position clear. In a separate line quoted by DW, Martinez-Acha said that “the only hands operating the canal are Panamanian and that is how it is going to stay.”
That matters because Trump’s claim about Chinese control is not supported by the evidence in the packet. DW notes that while two ports at the canal’s entrances are managed by a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison Holdings and Beijing has financed a bridge over the waterway, China does not own or control the canal. That distinction is essential. There is foreign commercial involvement around the canal, but not the sovereignty Trump described.
The canal’s real significance is commercial and strategic. It links the Atlantic and Pacific and remains vital to U.S. trade and military planning. Trump has also argued that Panama charges excessive fees, but DW says shipping costs rose over the past year mainly because of a historic drought, not because of discrimination against the United States.
The history also gives Panama’s rebuke more force. The United States took over the canal project in 1904, finished it in 1914 and eventually handed it to Panama in full in 1999. The transfer is not a disputed footnote but a settled matter in international relations. DW notes that former president Jimmy Carter formally oversaw the handover.
Trump’s remarks nonetheless played well with his broader territorial messaging. The DW report links the canal comments with his claims over Greenland, Canada and Mexico. That pattern suggests the Panama comments are part of a larger habit of using geography as political theatre, even when the legal status of the territory is well established.
Panama’s response was also a reminder that the canal is governed by neutrality rules. Canal Authority chief Ricuarte Vasquez Morales warned that granting special treatment to U.S. ships would “lead to chaos” and violate the neutrality treaty. That warning matters because it shifts the debate from rhetoric to operation. The issue is not just who owns the canal, but whether a great power can pressure its managers into preferential treatment.
The central takeaway is simple: Panama says the canal is its own, the United States no longer runs it, and Trump’s claims about Chinese control and possible force are being rejected as both false and unacceptable. The dispute may be politically useful to Trump, but Panama is making clear that sovereignty is not part of the bargaining.
