Panama endorses One China policy
WHILE ex- President Ricardo Martinelli was spending his first hours under arrest in Miami on Monday, President Juan Carlos Varela was busy announcing in Panama that the country has established diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China.
The announcement was made at 8 p.m. Simultaneously, Vice Chancellor Luis Miguel Hincapié communicated to Taiwan that Panama has broken off relations.
An hour and a half after Varela’s announcement, Chancellor Isabel de Saint Malo de Alvarado, at a press conference in Beijing attended by her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the two nations reports La Prensa.
“The oneChina principle constitutes the political basis for the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Panama,” Wang Yi said. Chancellor De Saint Malo de Alvarado said that a strategic alliance is being established that will benefit both peoples.
Varela recalled that China is a state that represents 20 percent of the world’s population and is the second largest economy in the world. “This is a situation that a responsible official could not continue to perpetuate,” he explained.
Martinelli, during his election campaign, promised closer ties with China, but reneged when Taiwan donated a $22 million jet for use by the president.
Panama now joins the 174 countries that endorse UN Resolution 2758 of 1971, which recognizes The People’s Republic as the only representatives in that body.
