Panama's President Jose Raul Mulino said he will not renegotiate the agreement with the United States on access for American troops to facilities in the country, despite protests that accuse him of threatening the country's sovereignty, the Associated Press reported, quoted by BTA.
On Tuesday, thousands of Panamanians took to the streets of the capital in the largest protest yet against the agreement, signed during a visit last month by US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
A day later, the US embassy issued a statement saying that the agreement does not allow the establishment of military bases in Panama. The US military presence in Panama is a sensitive issue, as people still remember the 1989 US invasion and US President Donald Trump has suggested the US should regain control of the Panama Canal.
“Panama's sovereignty is not at stake, it is not surrendered, it is not given“, Mulino said at a news conference. He insisted that the agreement would not lead to US bases in Panama.
The sites to which US troops and contractors will have access will always remain under Panamanian control, and it can terminate the agreement with six months' notice, the government said.
Protests in recent weeks have blocked streets and attracted thousands of people. Mulino said they were the result of political interests.
New German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and US President Donald Trump agreed during a phone call last night that it was necessary to quickly resolve trade disputes, a German government spokesman reported, quoted by DPA and BTA.
The two leaders also agreed that it was necessary to cooperate to end the war in Ukraine, the spokesman added.
“President Trump congratulated the chancellor on his inauguration. Chancellor Merz assured the US president that 80 years after the end of World War II, the US remains an indispensable friend and partner for Germany,“ the spokesman said.
During the call, Merz invited Donald Trump to an official visit to Germany. Trump has signaled that he may consider such a visit, according to government sources.
Since Merz's conservatives won federal elections in February, he has adopted a sharply critical tone toward the Trump administration, Reuters notes. On election night, the future chancellor warned that Europe must become independent of the United States, given the Trump administration's apparent indifference to its fate.
Earlier this week, he urged the White House to stay out of Germany's domestic politics after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio criticized Germany's domestic intelligence agency's decision to label the far-right Alternative for Germany party "extremist."
Merz has also criticized Trump for his policy of imposing tariffs that are particularly damaging to Germany's export-oriented economy, calling instead for their complete elimination in trade between the European Union and the United States.