LatinNews Daily - 10 February 2025

*China’s assistant foreign minister, Zhao Zhiyuan, has met with Panama’s ambassador to China, Miguel Lecaro Bárcenas, and lodged a complaint with the Panamanian government regarding its plan to terminate the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), China’s flagship infrastructure programme. 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. A Chinese foreign ministry press release cites the deputy foreign minister as saying: “China deeply regrets Panama’s recent announcement that it will terminate the MoU on the BRI”. Claiming that under the BRI framework, “China-Panama practical cooperation in various fields has developed rapidly and achieved a series of fruitful results, bringing tangible benefits to Panama and its people”, it states that “backpedalling” on the initiative “runs counter to the expectations of the Chinese and Panamanian peoples and is not in the vital interests of Panama.” It goes on to accuse the US of “wantonly undermining China-Panama relations and smearing and sabotaging Belt and Road cooperation through the means of pressuring and threatening. China-Panama relations never target any third party and should not be disrupted by any third party.” The statement concludes that “China hopes that the Panamanian side will eliminate external interruption and make the right decision while keeping in mind the overall bilateral relations and the long-term interests of the people of the two countries.”