Panama encourages dialogue and bridge-building at UN as canal tensions with China simmer

Panama’s foreign minister used a United Nations Security Council debate on Tuesday to call for dialogue over confrontation, saying his country was “born to connect oceans, continents, cultures and economies” in a speech delivered before an assembly chaired by China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, as the two countries navigate their worst bilateral crisis since establishing ties in 2017.China holds the rotating presidency of the Security Council in May and convened a high-level open debate on Tuesday to uphold the UN-charter" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="38449" data-entity-type="organization">UN Charter and strengthen the multilateral system, which Wang said included more than 20 countries.Wang, who travelled to New York to lead the session, used a separate press conference to take a veiled swipe at Washington, warning that “the purposes of the UN-charter" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="38449" data-entity-type="organization">UN Charter have been disregarded” and that world peace was “in great jeopardy”, without naming the United States or President Donald Trump. He did not take questions on Panama.