Panama formally pulled out of China’s massive Belt and Road infrastructure programme, following pressure from the United States to reduce Beijing’s influence on the Panama Canal, President Jose Raul Mulino has announced. Mulino told reporters on Thursday that the Panamanian Embassy in Beijing had given China the required 90-day notice of its decision not to renew its involvement in the plan. Mulino also accused the United States government of lying a day earlier when the US State Department claimed that US government vessels would be able to cross the country’s namesake canal without paying fees.
