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Panama encourages dialogue and bridge-building at UN as canal tensions with China simmer
Panama’s foreign minister uses UN speech to help defuse tension after deterioration in Panama-China relations due to canal dispute
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Igor Patrickin Rio de JaneiroPublished: 6:48am, 27 May 2026Updated: 6:51am, 27 May 2026Panama’s foreign minister used a United Nations Security Council debate on Tuesday to call for dialogue over confrontation, saying his country was “born to connect oceans, continents, cultures and economies” in a speech delivered before an assembly chaired by China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, as the two countries navigate their worst bilateral crisis since establishing ties in 2017.China holds the rotating presidency of the Security Council in May and convened a high-level open debate on Tuesday to uphold the UN Charter and strengthen the multilateral system, which Wang said included more than 20 countries.Wang, who travelled to New York to lead the session, used a separate press conference to take a veiled swipe at Washington, warning that “the purposes of the UN Charter have been disregarded” and that world peace was “in great jeopardy”, without naming the United States or President Donald Trump. He did not take questions on Panama.Advertisement
Panama’s Javier Martinez-Acha struck a similar register from the podium.
“Dialogue is not a sign of weakness. It is the highest form of trust in reason, in diplomacy, and in the ability of human beings to find peaceful settlements to disputes,” Panama’s foreign minister told the council.
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Martinez-Acha also defended what he called “useful multilateralism”, one “not measured solely by the number of resolutions adopted, but by its capacity to prevent conflicts, protect lives and offer concrete answers to the challenges of our peoples”.
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