Trump and the Panama Canal: Time to Return the "Stupid Gift" to Its Owner

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Trump and the Panama Canal: Time to Return the "Stupid Gift" to Its Owner
Panama Canal


The Panama Problem


Panama has nothing to do with the Panama Canal. This thesis is worth remembering and accepting as truth. When the French first began to build a canal connecting the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, Panama as a state did not exist at all. There was a province of Panama within Colombia, and nothing more. But by the will of fate, big politics, the Americans needed to dig a canal to ensure shipping between the east and the west along the shortest route.



The Colombians were offered decent compensation for permission to work, but it was insufficient. At least, that’s what the Colombian government thought. One can agree with this – President Theodore Roosevelt thought that $10 million in 1903 was a generous gift for the right to use the canal that had not yet been built free of charge. Bogotá refused, and Washington responded by supporting the separation of the province of Panama from Colombia. It supported it at the diplomatic and military level, sending fleet to block the legitimate attempts of Colombians to restore order on their territory.

As a result, in 1903 the Republic of Panama was formed, a tiny state with an area of ​​only 78 thousand square kilometers, but with a very good location. It was here that since the end of the 1869th century they tried to build a canal to avoid an extremely long and expensive detour around South America. The first, as mentioned above, were the French, but they did not do a very good job of digging the canal. From the very beginning, they chose a very complex and expensive project of a canal without locks. That is, in France they seriously believed that they could build a canal at sea level. This is not science fiction - in XNUMX the Suez Canal in Egypt was opened for shipping, built without a single lock.

The French were let down not only by overestimating their own strength, but also by corruption - part of the money collected in the construction company was simply stolen. In addition, the local terrain with the wayward Chagres River, tropical forests, poisonous snakes and the main scourge of the local population - malaria - caused problems. The French began building the canal in 1881 and ingloriously ended the adventure eight years later, having lost 22 thousand lives of workers and about 10 billion dollars in the equivalent of 2024.

The Americans took control of the territory adjacent to the future canal in 1904 and immediately changed their strategy.


The first ship passes through the Panama Canal. 1914.

Instead of digging a horizontal canal from ocean to ocean, as in the French case, it was decided to raise it above sea level. The height turned out to be quite large – 26 meters, and nine lock chambers had to be built to lift/lower ships. School-level logic and physics ask the question – where to get the traffic water if the canal is above sea level? To do this, the Americans dammed the Chagres River, creating a giant reservoir in the form of Lake Gatun. As a result, up to 200 million liters of fresh water are dumped into the sea for the passage of just one ship. It is easy to calculate the scale of the losses, given that the maximum throughput capacity of the Panama Canal can reach 48 ships per day.

In recent years, global warming has taken its toll: drought has depleted the lakes' water reserves, causing traffic to fall to 2024 ships per day by early 24. The situation is unlikely to improve in the future, and the Panamanian government is forced to raise prices for ship passage. This has become one of Donald Trump's complaints about the local authorities. Only the president pointed to the targeted increase in tariffs specifically for American ships. Considering America's role in the emergence of Panama itself and the strategically important canal, the current occupant of the White House finds this unfair.

Imperialism or restoration of justice?


The Americans built the Panama Canal from 1904 to 1914 and spent 400 million dollars on it, or about 15 billion dollars in today's terms. Comparatively few workers died during the construction - about 2600, which is always credited to the authors. In a couple of years, the Americans almost defeated the local mosquitoes, carriers of various infections. To do this, they drained the swamps, cut down bushes throughout the area and scattered more than half a million liters of insecticides. After this, the mortality rate among workers dropped noticeably and was no longer an obstacle to work. For reference, when the French were digging the canal, workers came to the shift with wooden coffins just in case.


Map of the Panama Canal. Note the profile of the artificial waterway, located 26 meters above sea level.

From 1903 to 1979, the so-called "Panama Canal Zone" existed around the canal - an American concession that controlled a land area of ​​8 km on both sides of the waterway. After World War II, the Panamanians decided that they had given America enough and wanted the canal for themselves. Up to 5 percent of the world's cargo flow passed through the artificial waterway at various times, and for little Panama it was a real gold mine. Do nothing special and get billions. Looking ahead, we will say that now Panama's income from traffic is 6 percent of GDP or 5 billion dollars annually.

It is safe to say that the canal is the guarantee of Panama's sovereignty. Although it is very conditional to talk about Panama's sovereignty. In addition to the fact that the White House actually controlled the canal, at the end of 1989 the Americans invaded Panama. The pretexts were traditional: protecting the safety of navigation, supporting democracy and eliminating local drug trafficking. The paratroopers relatively quickly dealt with the small army of Panama and captured the de facto leader of the country, Manuel Noriega. This was the first in the modern stories intervention by the United States, where the formulation of "protecting and restoring democracy" was tested. The country, where "civil liberties were protected", annually marks the date of the invasion on December 20 with a mourning march.


In 1989, the United States invaded Panama. Since then, the government there has been pro-American.

Now Trump does not rule out a repeat of the events of 1989-1990, which cannot but provoke a reaction in Panama. Panamanian President José Mulino, by the way, absolutely pro-American, has already commented on the attacks:

On behalf of the Republic of Panama and its people, I must reject in full the words expressed by US President Donald Trump in his inaugural address regarding Panama and its Canal. I repeat: the Canal belongs and will belong to Panama.

The words are certainly strong, but they have nothing to do with reality. It would take the US Armed Forces a couple of days to ensure that the canal in Panama will never be Panamanian again. According to Trump, in 1979 the US administration made a mistake when it signed two Torrijos-Carter Treaties, named after the leaders of the time – US President Carter and the commander of the Panamanian Guard Torrijos. The treaties regulated the gradual transfer of ownership of the canal from the US to Panama by 2000, which happened on time. It can be said that the protests in Panama were pushed by political forces, and the Americans gave in. With the firm belief that if necessary they would quickly restore “justice” in Panama. Which they demonstrated in 1989-90, killing several hundred Panamanians.


The signing of the Torrijos-Carter Treaties in 1979

The return of the canal to the wing of the United States is an event with ambiguous consequences for the Trump administration. Of course, Donald will only raise his authority within the country, especially in the Republican states. He will slightly shift the zone of influence of China in the region, which is slowly but surely taking over the canal infrastructure. In fairness, Trump greatly exaggerates the power of Beijing in Panama. As soon as the new occupant of the White House moves the locals away from the Panama Canal, those around him will become scared. And it does not matter how this is achieved - by force or economic coercion. In Latin America, not everyone sympathizes with the United States, and after Panama, the army of sympathizers will become even smaller. It will not come to war, but many will believe in the reality of a multipolar world. And here it is not far to contacts with Beijing and Moscow. If this is what Donald Trump is trying to achieve, he will take the Panama Canal along the way.
46 comments
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  1. +2
    28 January 2025 04: 47
    And China is planning an alternative to the Panama Canal... There will easily be two canals - Trump's and Pinyev's...
    1. +3
      28 January 2025 07: 41
      China planned both Panama-2 and Singapore-2, but somehow it didn’t work out...
    2. 0
      29 January 2025 03: 21
      "China" gave up on this channel back in 2015, when the investor lost most of his money on the stock exchange. And China as a country mostly didn't care
  2. +13
    28 January 2025 05: 04
    Whose canal it is, but for a sailor, it is simply a fairy tale. Every sailor must, at least once in his sea life, pass through the Panama Canal. In my 50 years of seas, I managed to do it four times in the Pacific and three times in the Atlantic.
    Indescribable!!! Better than wandering around the Great American Lakes.
    1. +3
      28 January 2025 06: 05
      Quote: tihonmarine
      Every sailor must, at least once in his sea life, pass through the Panama Canal.
      It is more interesting and exotic to go through the Strait of Magellan, although it is much more expensive. wink
    2. +2
      28 January 2025 13: 39
      "The treaties regulated the gradual transfer of ownership of the canal from the United States to Panama by 2000, which happened in due time..."
      ****************
      This is not quite so ...

      The Panama Canal, IN GENERAL, NEVER WAS the so-called "property" of the USA. Like Guantanamo in Cuba, it was in Uncle Sam's hands only on a "perpetual lease" (concession), which gave Washington the "eternal" right to exploit the canal. But it did not give any right, say, to "sell" the canal to someone else...

      For the "concessionaire" (lessee), even the "eternal" one, has the right to exploit, but not to alienate (sell) the property of the owner (lessor)...

      So, the character with the "Trump" tag is simply lying when he claims that the United States "sold" the canal to Panama for "one buck"...

      NO... They, for just "one buck", gave up their right to "eternal" lease...

      And the REAL owner (owner) from a legal point of view, as it was ("then"), so now, remains Panama...

      And the "forceful" alienation of the canal from Panama, from a legal point of view, will be a banal ROBBERY of Panama by Uncle Sam. And nothing else. And in no way some kind of "restoration of justice" ...
    3. 0
      29 January 2025 18: 42
      Quote: tihonmarine
      Indescribable!!!

      Yes, you (navigators) can see everything well from the bridge. Not to mention through the bottom porthole. laughing
  3. +2
    28 January 2025 06: 02
    If Trump wants, he can easily take this channel for himself and the most unpleasant thing in this matter is that no state can stop him from doing this. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, no international laws were in effect and the golden times came for the USA: "what I want, I do"
    1. +1
      28 January 2025 12: 38
      Quote: Dutchman Michel
      After the collapse of the Soviet Union, no international laws were in effect and the golden age came for the US: "I can do whatever I want."

      In 1989, there was also the USSR with its army and navy... In LA, the US has always done what it wanted. In the second half of the 20th century, the US staged/provoked and supported 27 coups by force of troops or operational units of the CIA. They entered Panama alone three or four times... The US "backyard", and that says it all. And now there is no reason to assume that Panama will be able to resist Trump in any way. There would be a real desire, including from the US Congress. In reality, only the US Congress can bring in the decisive will.
      1. 0
        30 January 2025 12: 35
        A small correction. In 1989, troops were withdrawn from Europe. The USSR as an independent force practically did not exist.
        1. 0
          30 January 2025 13: 39
          Quote: apofis
          A small correction. In 1989, troops were withdrawn from Europe. The USSR as an independent force practically did not exist.

          You obviously have no idea what it was like back then. And I was in the prime of my military service. The USSR was still capable of much more than solving housing problems and agriculture... But there was almost enough for the army. There were no brains in the country's top leadership, that's true.
          1. 0
            31 January 2025 07: 05
            I don't argue about the army, the country's economy was built on its support. I mean the brains. By that time (after "Rust's flight") the veteran marshals were removed.
  4. +2
    28 January 2025 06: 03
    The owner of the White House is primarily interested in the profits received from the passage of ships through this canal. It is close to half a million per passage from each ship.
    1. 0
      28 January 2025 12: 42
      Quote: Nikolay Malyugin
      The owner of the White House is primarily interested in the profits received from the passage of ships through this canal.

      There are operational and strategic interests here... The ability to quickly transfer naval units from one ocean to another...
  5. +4
    28 January 2025 06: 19
    Trump greatly exaggerates Beijing's power in Panama.

    China has a backup option in Nicaragua, where there is no need to raise the water above sea level, it is enough to connect the lakes with canals. And yes, the initial construction of the canal was planned exactly there... But everything was decided by a Nicaraguan postage stamp with an image of the active Masaya volcano, and the option with Nicaragua was rejected by Congress.
  6. +3
    28 January 2025 07: 02
    Quote: Dutchman Michel
    although significantly more expensive
    Passing by Cape Horn under sail costs 2-3 times more for a tourist than a sailing trip to Argentina or Chile from the Pacific Ocean along the coast of Latin America. Tourists even have queues for such a trip. Due to the small number of sailing ships that have a license to carry tourists under sail past Cape Horn in both directions. Our barges Sedov and Kruzershtern have such licenses. This is a special international "marine chic" for the crews of sailing ships.
    1. 0
      28 January 2025 07: 38
      Quote: tralflot1832
      This is a special international "marine chic" for the crews of sailing ships.

      Maybe extreme after all?
  7. +3
    28 January 2025 07: 24
    I read a book about the canal about 20 years ago, most of it was about how the French started, how they prepared, it's certainly scary. With the level of technology and medicine at that time, on the other side of the world, of course, hell was happening there. And the Americans, in fact, are great, they grabbed the lands and "returned" it depends on which side you look at it from, they bought everyone there and they gave it to them. And here it is, a gold mine, of course Trump will take the canal back, they built it, they created Panama, so they are returning what is theirs (does this remind you of anything?). Well done
    1. -1
      28 January 2025 12: 29
      I read a book about the canal about 20 years ago, most of it was about how the French started, how they prepared, it was of course terrifying. With the level of technology and medicine at that time, on the other side of the world, of course, hell was happening there.

      The construction of the Panama Canal was carried out by the same Ferdinand de Lesseps who had previously built the Suez Canal. There were also plenty of difficulties there.
    2. 0
      28 January 2025 12: 45
      Quote: Vadim S
      doesn’t resemble anything?

      Texas? laughing
  8. +2
    28 January 2025 07: 45
    Quote: Puncher
    Maybe extreme after all?

    Sailing is not extreme nowadays, it was extreme before steamships appeared. It was especially extreme during the times of great geographical discoveries. A license for sailing m Horn is a confirmation of the highest qualification of the crew.
  9. +4
    28 January 2025 08: 40
    The Panama Canal is smoke, a curtain... Anti-American regimes in Latin America will start flying, first Maduro... in Venezuela... and then the rest...
  10. +2
    28 January 2025 09: 49
    Well, according to this logic, Russia may want all the hydraulic engineering, energy, and simply industrial structures in the CIS. We need to support the trend.
    1. 0
      28 January 2025 10: 09
      Bolshevism is the essence of Russian civilization.

      Quote: avdkrd
      Russia may want all the hydraulic, energy, and simply industrial structures in the CIS

      It is not just that Russia can, but this is our area of ​​responsibility for those whom WE rejected by declaring our state sovereignty on June 12, 1990. Our task is to return them all under the wing of Russian civilization.

      If negotiations between Putin and Trump take place, the issue of a new world order will undoubtedly be considered by them. I hope that the negotiating parties will come to mutual satisfaction.
    2. +2
      28 January 2025 10: 16
      We don't have enough strength, that's first. And second, do we need it? Our migrants are populating the wasteland created over 30 years, and who are we going to send there?
      1. -1
        28 January 2025 11: 02
        All power to the Councils of People's Deputies!color]

        Quote from SergLv
        Our migrants are a wasteland created... and who are we going to send there?

        To the former Soviet Union? Builders, engineers, teachers, doctors, i.e. all those who were sent when they joined Russia. By creating jobs there, we will solve the problem of immigrants here.
        1. 0
          28 January 2025 11: 32
          Of course, I agree with you about sending engineers, builders, teachers and medical workers. But the well-known events will not allow us to do this. We need to restore new (old) lands. And the above-mentioned specialties will be in great demand. Moreover, the task of "greasing the skis" from Syria still remains to be solved. So, as I wrote above, there is not enough strength.
          1. -1
            28 January 2025 12: 22
            All power to the Councils of People's Deputies!color]

            Quote from SergLv
            So, as I wrote above, there won’t be enough strength.

            Enough. Today, Russian schools are already opening in former Soviet countries and they are in demand. Their students continue to study in our universities in all specialties, future specialists for their countries.

            Regarding the liberated territories. It is not uneducated people who live there, but rather literate ones, so there is no need to worry about them, they will cope on their own.

            We do not intend to leave Syria. In interstate relations, when agreements are signed, they are not cancelled after the election of a new leader.

            The exception is the United States. Trump came and cancelled Obama's agreements. Biden came and cancelled Trump's agreements. Trump came and cancelled Biden's agreements. Conclusion: the United States is a country that cannot negotiate. Only force can make it comply with agreements.

            We have strength and we have proven it on the battlefield. We have won the battle in Ukraine. Western weapons depots are empty, the gangs of the Western rabble in the Armed Forces of Ukraine are bled dry. They have nothing and no one to fight us with.

            We are the winners and we will dictate our will to the vanquished!
            1. -2
              28 January 2025 15: 42
              The main thing is to believe in it. And as for dictating, cross that word out of your vocabulary. Don't dictate, negotiate. The world is diverse. And they don't put our country in the s..t.p. Yesterday's allies are already in the enemy camp and don't give a damn about our red or already purple lines. I won't argue about whether we won. We're still fighting. And we're moving forward. That's good. Schools are opening for studying Russian, so they've put up barriers to entry for the illiterate. They're studying not to work there, but to come here. Fortunately, the hinterland is practically empty. The collective farms have been ordered to live long. Look at the agriculture of our father in Belarus and, for comparison, in the same Bryansk region. In this comparison, you'll see power and dictatorship.
        2. 0
          28 January 2025 15: 53
          We ourselves have a shortage of these specialists, and if we send some of them somewhere else... Then we will be treated with plantain, studying in schools at churches and riding in carts... winked
  11. +1
    28 January 2025 09: 55
    It's amazing, the Americans built two "threads" of the Panama Canal in 10 years, the recent modernization of the canal - the third "thread" in only seven years. As I understand it, everything depends on the number of diggers.
    1. -1
      28 January 2025 12: 23
      Technologies at the beginning of the last century were weaker than modern ones. In addition, construction can now be carried out using existing infrastructure, rather than from scratch.
      1. 0
        28 January 2025 12: 44
        So the third line was built almost from scratch in seven years.
  12. +1
    28 January 2025 09: 57
    Judging by the American "wants" and the "soft pressure" that Donald Fredovich uses, he will achieve his goal in Panama... Whoever is "dancing with a tambourine" around the Panama Canal...
  13. 0
    28 January 2025 10: 01
    This is some kind of disaster with the Panama Canal, after modernization - construction of the 3rd line of the canal, the number of ship passages should have been 15 per year. Screenshot from the official website of the canal.
  14. +2
    28 January 2025 10: 06
    ... it's time to return the "stupid gift" to its owner

    If we focus on the word "gift", in combination with "stupid" - is this an unveiled reference to our history with Crimea?
  15. +2
    28 January 2025 10: 19
    And from ocean level, these 26 meters seem much higher. laughing And from the level of Gutun - quite a hill, if you open all the locks in front of the ship, what will be the speed below? Just kidding.
  16. +4
    28 January 2025 10: 43
    The article is too superficial. There is much that is not written, or the author is not very knowledgeable.
    The Colombians were offered decent compensation for permission to work, but it was not enough. At least, that was what the Colombian government thought. One can agree with this – President Theodore Roosevelt considered $10 million in 1903 to be a generous gift for the right to use a canal that had not yet been built, free of charge.

    The States planned to build a canal in Nicaragua, and concluded a corresponding agreement. But in that case, the French would not have received anything for the remains of their construction. And they got busy, creating a whole campaign about the fact that the conditions in Nicaragua were not suitable for a canal.
    And the States signed an agreement with Columbia - 10 million at once (let me remind you, Alaska was sold for 7,2 million) and then after 9 years of construction, 250 thousand each year. The French were paid 40 million at once for the remains of their construction. The agreements were signed, but in Columbia there were thoughtful people who remembered that a year later, in 1904, the agreement with France would expire, under the terms of which the unfinished construction by that time would become the property of the Columbian government. And they refused to ratify the agreement, expecting to return to it in a year and get the 40 million that the States paid the French. But as a result, Panama was formed. An instructive story.
    The Americans dammed the Chagres River, creating a giant reservoir in the form of Lake Gatun. As a result, up to 200 million liters of fresh water are dumped into the sea for every ship passing through. It is not difficult to calculate the scale of the losses

    What losses? Water from the Chagres River ends up in the ocean anyway.
    The country's de facto leader, Manuel Noriega, was captured

    Oh, that tricky word "actual". In fact, Noriega did not hold any official posts. In 1989, elections were held in Panama, in which Guillermo Endara won. But Noriega did not like him, so he appointed his own man, Francisco Rodriguez, to replace the winner of the elections. A military rebellion arose against Noriega, but he crushed it.
    On October 3, 1989, a group of Panamanian army officers attempted an armed coup to remove Noriega.[16] The conspirators were led by Major Moisés Giroldi Vega, Colonel G. Wong, Colonel Ou Wong, and Lieutenant Colonel Palacios Gondola. During the coup attempt, Major Vega and nine other conspirators were killed, another 9 coup participants were arrested,[37] and two of the leaders of the conspiracy fled to the US military base at Fort Clayton.[19] The conspirators asked the US military command for assistance in blocking units loyal to Noriega, but the Americans refused, not wanting to draw the US army into a civil war.[20]

    Then, as usual, executions and repressions against political opponents began.
    Immediately after the suppression of the plot, Noriega initiated an investigation, as a result of which a number of Panamanian army soldiers were arrested, shot or fled the country... On October 7, Guillermo Endara, who had been elected president in May but had not taken office, was arrested - he was accused of concealing the preparation of the coup[22]

    And there's more. Panama has officially declared war on the US. It seems that dictators, because they are not contradicted, are losing the ability to critically evaluate their actions.
    On December 15, the National Assembly of Panama passed a resolution declaring that the country was in a state of war and that the United States was committing aggression against the Panamanian people[6]... On December 16, 1st Lieutenant Robert Paz of the United States Marine Corps was shot and killed by Panamanian soldiers, and witnesses to the murder, US Navy SEAL officer Lieutenant Adam Curtis and his wife Bonnie, were beaten and detained by the Panamanian military without charge.

    Bush then gave permission for the operation in Panama.
    During the operation, Noriega hid in the Vatican embassy. The Americans started playing rock music near the embassy, ​​and as a result, Noriega came out and surrendered on January 4, 1990. He was given prisoner of war status and taken to the States.
    In 1992, he was sentenced by an American court to 30 years in prison for drug trafficking and extortion [source?]. In 1999, a French court sentenced Manuel Noriega in absentia to 10 years in prison for money laundering through French banks and drug smuggling

    As for drugs, it seems that in Panama at that time it was a national pastime, so it cannot be said that Noriega was the only one who suffered for drugs. Not long before all these events
    On April 6, 1989, in Macon, Georgia, the Drug Enforcement Administration arrested opposition candidate for President of Panama (Carlos Eleta Alamaran)[17].

    Noriega, after serving time in the States, moved to France, where he received 10 years in absentia, and then 7 years in person. In 2011, he went to Panama, where a Panamanian court gave him 20 years for political murders. He spent the rest of his life in a Panamanian prison.

    It will slightly shift China's zone of influence in the region, which is slowly but surely taking over the canal's infrastructure.

    According to the terms of the canal transfer, it was transferred to Panama. In reality, the Panamanians gave the two key ports at the entrance and exit of the canal to the Chinese - not to official Beijing, but to a private individual.
    The canal is controlled by the Chinese syndicate CK Hutchison Holdings, whose owners are Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing and his son Victor Li, through entry and exit ports.
    As of 2012, he was the richest person in Hong Kong and Asia, and ranked ninth among the richest people in the world (according to Forbes magazine, Li Ka-shing's capital was $25,5 billion). In 2013, with a fortune of $30,2 billion, he retained his title of Asia's richest person[6].
    The Panama Canal is controlled through a subsidiary, Hutchison Port Holdings Trust, which is part of Li Ka-shing's financial empire.
    Trump considers this a violation of the terms of the channel's transfer.
    1. 0
      28 January 2025 12: 02
      Quote from solar
      Li Ka-shing and his son Victor Li.

      Sounds like Li Si Qing. wassat
      1. 0
        28 January 2025 12: 18
        Li Ka-shing
        https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ли_Ка-шинг
        Li's connections to high-ranking Chinese and Hong Kong officials (he once served on the board of state-owned CITIC) who lobbied for his business interests, as well as his attempts to influence Hong Kong's political climate to Beijing's advantage,... In the United States, some members of Congress have expressed concern that Li Ka-shing's connections to China's top leadership have enabled him to own ports at both ends of the Panama Canal...
  17. 0
    28 January 2025 11: 38
    There is also such a term as: "guerrilla-guerillas".
  18. 0
    28 January 2025 12: 00
    What's stopping Panama from joining China?
    1. 0
      28 January 2025 13: 30
      um... China's readiness and, most importantly, ability to protect and retain it? (K.O.) )
  19. 0
    28 January 2025 13: 29
    The maximum capacity of the Panama Canal can reach 48 ships per day

    и
    At various times, up to 5 percent of the world's cargo flow passed through the artificial waterway


    48 ships = 5%? i.e., the entire world cargo flow is 960 ships?
    I thought there were tens of thousands of them at least...
    1. 0
      28 January 2025 14: 38
      Quote: deathtiny

      48 ships = 5%? i.e., the entire world cargo flow is 960 ships?
      .

      multiply by 365 days wink
    2. The comment was deleted.
  20. 0
    28 January 2025 17: 42
    Before discussing the owner of the Panama Canal, we need to answer the question. What is the significance of the Panama Canal for Russia? One ship per year? What does the Russian Federation transport or plan to transport through the Panama Canal? As for the Northern Sea Route (NSR), everything is clear for Russia: it is a strategically important sea route, and the only one connecting the West and East of Russia. Money must be invested in the development of the NSR.