Trump ‘bullying’ Panama over canal: Townsend

AlArabiya English

The transit fees for the Panama Canal should be negotiated peacefully, not through threats, former Deputy Secretary of State for Defense Jims Townsend says. #Trump #Panama

Transcript

00:00A huge diplomatic row brewing and Trump has not assumed office yet.

00:06What do you make of his threats regarding the Panama Canal?

00:09Well, you're right in the sense that he's not even the president yet.

00:13We have a president, it's Joe Biden, and this is not something that the U.S. administration

00:19has been worried about.

00:21This is something that now Trump is taking on, and it's really he's posturing and he's

00:27bullying, quite frankly, in a very undiplomatic way, but we've got to get used to that.

00:33But he's bullying the Panamanians about these transit fees.

00:36But as your report points out, it's not just us, it's the Japanese, it's the Chileans,

00:42Chinese, others pay this transit fee, and we should all come together and go negotiate

00:47something with the Panamanians if there's an issue here.

00:50We shouldn't take out a baseball bat and begin to bully them.

00:54That's not the way to start negotiations.

00:57For more UN videos visit www.un.org

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