Washington:
US President Donald Trump on Saturday urged for free transit for American commercial and military ships through Panama and Suez Canals, “immediately” his state secretary with progress.
Trump has been calling the United States to control the Panama Canal for months, but his social media posts also focused on the important suggestion route.
“American ships, both military and commercial, should be allowed to travel for free, through Panama and Suez Canals!” He wrote on his true social stage.
He claimed that both routes would be “not present” without the United States and said that he had asked the state secretary Marco Rubio to “take immediate care of the situation”.
Panaman’s President Jose Raul Mulino said on Saturday without referring to Trump, that the toll fees for the Panama Canal are regulated by the Panama Canal Authority (ACP), an autonomous governing body that oversees the trade route.
“There is no compromise on the contrary,” he said in a post on X.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said during the trip to Panama City earlier this month that the United States was demanding an agreement under which its warships could pass through the canal “first, and independent.”
The United States and China are two of the top users of the Panama Canal.
A major waterway connecting Europe and Asia is about 10 percent of the global sea trade before the Egyptian Suez canal, the Red Sea and the Huthi rebels attack on the shipping routes in the Gulf of Aden.
Iran -backed rebels began to target ships after the onset of the Gaza war, claiming solidarity with Palestinians, forcing ships to make a long and expensive round around the southern end of Africa.
Egypt said that the revenue of its canal had fallen by 60 percent last year, losing $ 7 billion.
The US Army has been attacking Huthi posts since January 2024, but with almost daily attacks in the previous month, those attacks under Trump have intensified.
Trump has vowed that military action will continue until the Huthis are threatened to shipping.
(This story is not edited by NDTV employees and auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
