I don’t know about all of you, but I’m not yet tired of winning – although in this case, we haven’t won the whole enchilada. At least, not yet.
As my colleague Bonchie noted earlier on Sunday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio went to Panama to explain to Panama’s President José Raúl Mulino about President Trump’s concern with China’s Road and Belt Initiative moving in on the Panama Canal. No sooner did we get to read about that before word came out: Panama folded and promised to not only not renew their 2017 deal with China, but to try to find a way to skate out of it early. Remarkable.
The X post reads in full:
The President of Panama, José Raúl Mulino has announced that following his meeting yesterday with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Panama has decided not to renew its 2017 Memo with China, regarding their “Belt and Road Initiative” and that they will look towards voiding their Agreements with the Chinese Government prior to their End Dates set for 2027 and 2028.
It would have been roundly interesting to have sat in on the conversation our SecState, Marco Rubio, had with President Mulino. Our guy was obviously, shall we say, persuasive.