Panama rejects US pressure claims as it seeks to ease China tensions

Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino on Thursday rejected suggestions that US pressure had shaped his government’s handling of a dispute over ports near the Panama Canal, as Panama seeks to stabilise relations with Beijing and renew a key maritime agreement.

“The decision we made regarding those two ports was genuinely Panamanian,” Mulino said during his weekly press conference, after China accused unnamed “third parties” of interfering in bilateral ties.