The US president has threatened to ‘take back’ the Panama Canal, claiming without evidence that China was operating it.
A consortium led by the US asset management firm BlackRock will take control over two key ports on the Panama Canal as part of a wider deal with the Hong Kong-based conglomerate, in what Donald Trump has called a major foreign policy victory for his administration.
The development follows the US president’s threats to “take back” the canal the US took part in constructing over unsubstantiated claims that China has too much influence there.
In an agreement valued at almost $23 billion (€21.5bn), the BlackRock consortium will assume control of 43 ports in 23 countries, including Balboa and Cristóbal, which are positioned on either side of the Panama Canal.
The other ports that are included in the sale are in countries such as Australia, Egypt, the Netherlands and Mexico. The deal does not include any ports in China or Hong Kong.
Trump hailed the transaction during a speech to Congress on Tuesday. “My administration will be reclaiming the Panama Canal, and we’ve already started doing it,” he told politicians.
The US president’s allies have railed in recent months against what they perceive to be Beijing’s strong presence in Panama.
Without giving evidence, Republican Senator Ted Cruz said in January that the Panama ports run by CK Hutchison Holding, a Hong Kong-based conglomerate started by the billionaire Li Ka-shing, “give China ready observation posts”.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio then visited Panama in early February, warning Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino that his country had to reduce Chinese influence over the canal.
Although Mulino rejected the US’ claim about Beijing, his government soon announced that it was pulling out of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which funds major infrastructure projects overseas.
In a statement about the deal, Frank Sixt, the co-managing director of CK Hutchison, denied that the transaction occurred because of political pressure.
The sale was “the result of a rapid, discrete but competitive process in which numerous bids and expressions of interest were received”, he said.
”I would like to stress that the transaction is purely commercial in nature and wholly unrelated to recent political news reports concerning the Panama Ports,“ Sixt added.
The BlackRock consortium includes the Swiss company Terminal Investment Limited.
