Most of the stakes in key ports on the Panama Canal owned by a Hong Kong-based company are set to be sold off after Donald Trump announced his intention for the US to take over the waterway. The company has agreed to the sale to a group led by American investment firm BlackRock. Although not owned by China, CK Hutchison, which was founded by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing, is based in Hong Kong and operates under Chinese financial laws.

Via a subsidiary, the firm manages ports at the Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean entrances to the shipping lane. The new deal includes 43 ports in 23 countries, including these two parts of the Panama Canal, and is worth £17.8bn. The arrangement requires approval from the Panamanian government.

“China is operating the Panama Canal. And we didn’t give it to China. We gave it to Panama, and we’re taking it back,” Mr Trump said during his inaugural address in January.

In a visit to Panama in February, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the country to make “immediate changes” to what he called the “influence and control” of China over the canal.

During his address to Congress overnight, the President renewed his call for the country to take over the waterway, saying his administration would “reclaim” it.

But Panama’s President José Raúl Mulino said today that Trump was “lying”.

He posted on X: “I reject in the name of Panama and all Panamanians this new affront to the truth and our dignity as a nation.”

The President added: “The Panama Canal is not in the process of being restored, and this is certainly not the task that was even discussed in our conversations with Secretary Rubio or anyone else.”

He then wrote: “Cooperation between our governments passes through clear understandings in terms of issues of mutual interest… It doesn’t have anything to do with ‘reclaiming the canal’ nor with tarnishing our national sovereignty.”

Trump also mentioned Greenland. The President said: “I also have a message tonight for the incredible people of Greenland… I think we’re going to get it [Greenland]. One way or the other we’re going to get it.”

He added, addressing the island’s people: “We will keep you safe. We will make you rich. And together we will take Greenland to heights like you have never thought possible before.”