Panama repeats China invitation to Canal Neutrality Treaty

Panama’s government again asked the People’s Republic of China to accede to the protocol of the Treaty Concerning the Permanent Neutrality and Operation of the Panama Canal, restating the request at a reception marking the 77th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic. Vice Minister of Multilateral Affairs and Cooperation Carlos Guevara Mann delivered the invitation during remarks at the Chinese Embassy event in Panama City. “I reiterate the invitation of the national government to the People’s Republic of China to adhere to the protocol of the treaty concerning the permanent neutrality and operation of the Panama Canal,” Guevara Mann said. Chinese Ambassador Zhang Xiangyan answered with a public defense of Panamanian control of the waterway. He said China has supported Panama’s sovereignty over the canal and its permanent neutrality, and that Panama’s administration of the route has served international trade. “Today the Canal is Panamanian, and it will remain Panamanian tomorrow and in the future,” Zhang said. The exchange put a long-standing legal gap back on the table. The 1977 Neutrality Treaty, signed by Panama and the United States and in force since October 1, 1979, declares the canal a permanently neutral international waterway, open in peace and war to ships of all nations on equal terms. A related protocol allows other states to accede. Instruments of accession are deposited with the General Secretariat of the Organization of American States. About 40 states have joined that protocol but China has not. The Republic of China, Taiwan, is among the parties that did accede, a fact Beijing has cited when explaining why it has stayed out. Officials in Beijing have said China would consider joining if Taiwan were no longer listed as a party. Panama switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing on June 13, 2017, and successive Panamanian governments, including President José Raúl Mulino and Foreign Minister Javier Martínez-Acha, have restated the one-China policy. Guevara Mann framed accession as consistent with Panama’s drive to widen political and legal backing for the neutrality regime. Earlier in 2026, Foreign Minister Martínez-Acha invited diplomats from Algeria, Armenia, Australia, Azerbaijan, Côte d’Ivoire, Georgia, Jordan, Pakistan, the Philippines, Serbia, Slovakia and Vietnam to consider joining the protocol, describing accession as a legal guarantee for global trade and a signal of confidence in Panama as operator of the route. The vice minister also listed China’s commercial weight on the isthmus. He said China is the second-largest user of the Panama Canal, the main supplier to the Colón Free Zone, and the second country by number of ships registered under the Panamanian flag. Zhang said two-way trade has doubled since 2017 and that Chinese investment in Panama has grown sixfold, with about 200 Chinese companies operating in the country. He cited Chinese participation in the Fourth Bridge over the Panama Canal, training programs that have sent nearly 10,000 Panamanians to China, and more than 400 scholarships awarded by the Chinese government. He said Panama’s coffee exports to China rose more than eightfold in the year after diplomatic relations began. Guevara Mann said a Panamanian delegation had recently visited China and that the two sides had made progress on maritime and port issues after an earlier dispute. Panama and China reached a consensus in July 2026 to begin procedures to renew a bilateral maritime transport agreement that expired that month. Detentions of Panama-flagged ships in Chinese ports, which had surged earlier in 2026 after Panama’s Supreme Court voided port concessions held by a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison, later fell, according to the Panama Maritime Chamber. The Neutrality Treaty does not give acceding states a right to station forces in Panama or to operate the canal. Panama assumed full operation of the waterway on December 31, 1999, through the Panama Canal Authority. The United States reserved, in Senate understandings attached to the 1977 package, a continuing interest in the canal remaining open and neutral. Guevara Mann said Panama wants ties with major economic actors on the basis of mutual respect and that foreign policy is executed by the Foreign Ministry, not by the National Assembly. Zhang thanked Panama for holding to the one-China principle through nine years of diplomatic relations and called for both sides to “overcome interference” and move in the same direction. No Chinese accession instrument had been deposited with the OAS as of September 19, 2026. Panama’s invitation remains a political request. Formal entry would require Beijing to complete its own internal procedures and to file the protocol with the OAS depositary.