*US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has celebrated Panama’s 2 February announcement that it will not renew its participation in China’s flagship infrastructure programme, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Panama’s decision to wind down its involvement in the BRI followed an intense US pressure campaign regarding alleged Chinese influence over the Panama Canal, which saw Rubio meet with Panama’s President José Raúl Mulino on 2 February and has included suggestions from President Donald Trump that the US could seize control of the Canal by force. Rubio yesterday described Panama’s decision to leave the BRI as “a great step forward for US-Panama relations [and] a free Panama Canal”. China’s ambassador in Panama, Xu Xueyuan, was highly critical of US influence over Panama in a column published yesterday in national daily La Estrella de Panamá. Xu questioned why the US “views the operations of Chinese companies in Panama as an enormous threat” and insisted that China is committed to the “permanent neutrality of the Canal”, stating that “the only party that has threatened the Canal is the US, which represents a threat not just for Panama, but for the world”.