Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino said Thursday, March 20, that he wants to build a megaport on the Pacific to complement the Panama Canal ‘s business , and he downplayed a press report about U.S. military options to recover the waterway.

President Donald Trump’s threats to recapture the canal, even by force, have strained bilateral ties. Added to this was NBC News ‘ report a week ago that the White House had “ordered the U.S. Armed Forces to develop options” to this end.

Mulino downplayed this claim, saying that he wants to build a “mega-port facility” to complement the canal’s profitable business, which handles 5% of global maritime trade.

“What’s moving globally is the Pacific. We’re playing a small role there […]. What we want is precisely to move toward a port facility, a mega port facility, that will allow us to be a major player in that business segment,” Mulino explained at a press conference.

“We already have the business, meaning the ships that come to the canal and transit through it can be, I think, important movers of that cargo that will be moved in the Pacific,” he added.

The president indicated that he has discussed this issue with leaders of major international shipping companies, who have “shown interest” in ports in Panama.

“If any port operator of this level were to have that port in Panama, it would close the loop, and we’d be playing in a different league,” he said.

Mulino downplayed the story about alleged plans being drawn up by the U.S. Southern Command to recover the canal.

“We haven’t been able to find any named source for that information. (…) So if no one signs off on such a statement, I don’t give it much credit,” he stated.

The waterway is the engine of the nation’s thriving economy, and the autonomous state agency that operates it, the Panama Canal Authority (ACP), said this month that it is considering expanding its business with the construction and operation of a gas pipeline across the 80-km isthmus.

Trump has maintained that China controls the Canal, because a Hong Kong company operates two ports at the access points to the waterway.

Amid this pressure, the Hong Kong company announced earlier this month that it would sell its stake in the two Panamanian ports to a US investment fund.