MOSCOW, March 6. /TASS/. The transition of ports on the Panama Canal under the control of American investors will not affect the Russian economy, Alexey Bezborodov, managing partner of Infra Projects LLC, told TASS.
"The Russian economy does not need the [Panama] Canal at all, it is not important for us - even a tenth of a percent of our turnover does not pass through it, except for some volumes of bananas, and even then indirectly, it goes through the Panama Canal to Europe, or directly to St. Petersburg, to Novorossiysk," he said.
The expert recalled that the operator of the ports will be Mediterranean Shipping Company.
"A very interesting point is that BlackRock, in fact, finances the fulfillment of Trump's wishes, the operator and generally all the affairs will be handled by the Swiss-Italian family company, Mediterranean Shipping Company, which belongs to the Aponte family. The Aponte family is primarily important to us because it is the only one of all the large container lines that has not left the Russian Federation, continues to work, and maintains an office," Bezborodov said.
According to the expert, marketwise, after the transfer of ports on the Panama Canal under the control of the United States, "nothing will change."
"If colleagues from Mediterranean Shipping manage two terminals (on the Panama Canal - TASS), then, in fact, the canal will work. The ports that close the canal on both sides will service those bottlenecks that will arise in the event of any problems, transfer certain container flows from east to west, from west to east. In fact, nothing new or terrible will happen," the expert concluded.
During his inaugural speech on January 20, US President Donald Trump said the United States was taking back the Panama Canal as he accused China of "operating" it.
Trump noted that a major American company had announced its intention to acquire ports on both sides of the Panama Canal. Earlier, Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison Holdings said it would sell a 90% stake in its subsidiary that operates ports on both sides of the Panama Canal to American investors. A group of investors, including BlackRock Inc., Global Infrastructure Partners and Terminal Investment Limited, will also acquire 80% in other subsidiaries that own and operate 43 ports and 199 berths in 23 countries. The value of the assets is $22.8 billion.
Commissioned in 1914, the Panama Canal was built by the United States and stayed under its control until 1977 when the Torrijos-Carter agreement relinquished American control over the canal by 2000. Today, it remains a major route for the global economy and a key object of US interest.