“We didn’t give it to China, we gave it to Panama. And we’re taking it back,” President Trump said in his inaugural speech on Jan. 20. Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino responded on Jan. 22 in a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos: “We reject in its entirety everything that Mr. Trump has said. First, because it is false; and second, because the Panama Canal belongs to Panama and will continue to belong to Panama. The Panama Canal was not a concession or a gift from the United States.”
The Panamanian government also filed a formal complaint to the United Nations on Jan. 21, invoking an article of the UN Charter precluding any member from “the threat or use of force” against the territorial integrity or political independence of another. In a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Panama requested that the UN Security Council take up the matter.
At the same time, however, Panama announced that it now plans an audit of the Canal and the Panama Ports Company, a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based conglomerate CK Hutchison Holdings that operates the ports of Balboa and Cristobal on either end of the canal. According to Financial Times, Panama’s Office of the Comptroller General put up a video on X announcing: “Today our auditors arrived at [the company] to start an exhaustive audit aimed at guaranteeing efficient and transparent use of public resources.”