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Winning: Panama to leave “Belt and Road”
“Panamanian president José Raúl Mulino said his country would not renew its agreement with China’s Belt and Road Initiative following a visit from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a move that will make it the first Latin American country to leave the initiative.
Mulino, speaking to reporters on Sunday after Rubio’s first foreign trip as America’s top diplomat, said he believes the agreement is due for renewal in a year or two. He said he would study “whether it can be finished earlier or not.”
…
Panama was the first Latin American nation to join the Belt and Road Initiative and now becomes the first to back away from it. …”.
Excellent work, Sec. Rubio!
Next up in the not-too-distant future, perhaps something needs to be done about this Darien Gap place that straddles the border between Panama and another country that was in the news a few days ago: Colombia.
I must say, the 21st-century version of the Monroe Doctrine is taking shape with bracing speed.
Published in Foreign Policy
I think the Panamanians like it. They don’t seem to like Colombians even though they used to be Colombians, or perhaps because of it.
Do you mean that the Panamanians like the Darien Gap as some sort of geographical “buffer” between themselves and Colombia?
Precisely.
Interesting.
Also, what has been moving relentlessly through the Darien Gap since 2021 has been most unwelcome.
I’m not tired of winning.
“Nice country you got there…..”
Me either. I’m also not tired of pole vaulting. But if Rubio can also get Russia to exit Ukraine, I’ll really be impressed.
This much is a good start, though. It’s a little more along the lines of what Sal Mercogliano said could be done than what some MAGAtroids were urging. (Don’t ask me which MAGAtroids. It was over on Twitter.)
Leaving Belt and Road is unambiguously a good thing.
I have a friend who was born and raised in Chile. He once told me that all the South American Latin countries , and their populations, either disliked or hated each other. He gave me an analysis of the character of the population of each country, and how it was reflected in the style of play and general behavior of each countries national soccer team.
I think a similar dynamic ( other than the soccer teams ) occurs in Asia.
Geopolitics ain’t beanbag.
Big Countries have “spheres of influence” that they prefer other Big Countries to stay out of. Sometimes, a Big Country tries to grab a piece of another Big Country’s “sphere of influence”. If it miscalculates the other Big Country’s willingness and ability to resist such a grab, bad things happen. When they do, Little Countries are usually the ones that pay the heaviest price.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
That is pretty much the way of our world, until aliens alight upon our planet and, say, implant a chip in human brains that reprograms us along the lines of John Lennon’s “Imagine”.
Until then, …
Yup, “nice country you got there…..”.
I just hope it doesn’t mean that in the future the US taxpayer will be paying for Panama’s belts and roads.
Best way for a small country not to be part of somebody else’s “sphere of influence” is to get nukes, starting with cheap and easy dirty bombs and working their way up. Then they can have their own sphere of influence. Let’s hear it for nuclear proliferation!
It’s not without cost, either to help them get their own belts and roads or to make them be satisfied without them. I presume the reason we let it get to this stage of affairs was the cost. Rebuilding America’s navy and merchant fleet and facilities is also going to be expensive.