Panama President Jose Raul Mulino rejected a plan by President Donald Trump to put the Panama Canal back under U.S. control. 

Trump claimed during his inaugural speech that Panama had broken a promise to remain neutral and alleged that the canal is under Chinese control, the BBC reports. 

“American ships are being severely overcharged and not treated fairly in any way, shape or form and that includes the United States Navy. And above all 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,” Trump said in his speech. 

Mulino denied the allegation, saying that there is “no presence of any nation in the world that interferes with our administration.” 

While Panama has control of the canal itself, Hutchison Ports PPC, a Hong Kong-based company, controls ports at both ends of the canal. While Hutchison and its parent company are not owned by the Chinese government, they are subject to the national security law that Beijing imposed on Hong Kong in 2020, according to The Hill. 

About 40% of all U.S. shipping containers pass through the waterway between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.