Carter to Represent U.S. at Panama Canal Event

President Clinton expressed confidence Tuesday that the government of Panama will keep the Panama Canal open to all shipping when it assumes control of the waterway at the end of the month. But he decided to skip the formal hand-over ceremony and send former President Carter in his place.

Talking to reporters before embarking on a trip to California, Clinton sought to finesse the end of U.S. ownership of a canal that American engineers completed 85 years ago. He said he supports the hand-over but emphasized that Carter’s administration negotiated the deal in 1977.

The president said the press of other foreign travel precludes a trip to Panama City for the ceremony, scheduled for Dec. 14 in advance of the Dec. 31 change in ownership. But it is an open secret in Washington that Clinton is not eager to be associated too closely with relinquishing control of the strategic path between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Clinton acknowledged that the canal treaty was “immensely unpopular” at the time it was signed because critics saw it as a massive giveaway of an important U.S. asset. The deal became an issue in Carter’s unsuccessful reelection campaign against Ronald Reagan, who argued that the United States had built the waterway and should keep it.

As the transition period winds down, critics have raised doubts about the wisdom of the transfer, questioning Panama’s ability to operate the canal. Retired Adm. Thomas H. Moorer, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has asserted that China will seize control of the waterway through a Hong Kong company, Hutchison Whampoa Ltd., which has contracts to operate ports at both the Atlantic and Pacific ends of the canal.

“I think that the new government of Panama is committed to maintaining the canal in an appropriate way and keeping it open and working with us to do so,” Clinton said.

As for the Chinese participation, he said: “I think they’ll want to demonstrate to a distant part of the world that they can be a responsible partner. And I would be very surprised if any adverse consequences flowed from the Chinese running the canal.”

Clinton administration officials were aghast at the president’s use of the phrase “running the canal,” which picked up the rhetoric of Moorer and his allies.

“The issue is [a Hong Kong-based company securing] contracts in the ports, not running the locks and running the canal itself,” State Department spokesman James P. Rubin said. “And that’s what the president was referring to. . . . We have no reason to believe there’s any risk of any problem as a result of [the company’s] running the ports.”

Clinton praised Carter for “a historic and great thing” in negotiating the canal treaty. He said Carter “deserves to lead our delegation down there.” Secretary of State Madeleine Albright will accompany Carter, although she is scheduled to be in Brussels the day after the ceremony to attend a North Atlantic Treaty Organization meeting.

Also Tuesday, the last U.S. military post in Panama, Ft. Clayton, closed its doors. The commander of the last Army brigade stationed in Panama will remain in the country until New Year’s Eve to be the symbolic last soldier to leave when Panama officially assumes control of the canal.