PANAMA CITY (AP) — A planned trip by some Panamanian lawmakers to Taiwan has unleashed the latest diplomatic spat with China as the Central American country tries to navigate the turbulent waters between the Asian superpower and the United States.

On Wednesday, Panama’s Foreign Relations Ministry and the U.S. ambassador to the country criticized China’s diplomats in Panama for asking the lawmakers to cancel their trip to Taiwan, with the ministry accusing the Chinese Embassy of “meddling” in internal Panamanian affairs.

This followed comments from Panama President José Raúl Mulino a week earlier saying that the planned Taiwan trip did not have the approval of his administration and reminding the lawmakers that the executive branch was responsible for Panama’s foreign policy.

China claims Taiwan, a self-governing island off its coast, as its territory and has staged threatening military drills in the surrounding waters in recent years.

China has also been embroiled in a spat with Japan after new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said on Nov. 7 that a Chinese naval blockade or other action against Taiwan could be grounds for a Japanese military response. Her comments drew a warning from China against any interference in Taiwan.

In Latin America, Chinese diplomats have worked to get governments to establish diplomatic relations with it and cut ties to Taiwan.

Panama established relations with China in 2017 after breaking them off with Taiwan.

The Trump administration has brought the weight of the U.S. government to bear on the issue this year, starting with accusations that China could influence the operations of the strategically important Panama Canal because a Hong Kong-based conglomerate held the long-term concession to operate ports at either end of the canal. The canal’s administration and the Panamanian government have denied that China had any sway over canal operations.

On Wednesday, Panama’s Foreign Relations Ministry said in a statement that “as a sovereign country, it does not accept restrictions, nor pressure that tries to influence the legitimate decisions of its subordinates.” The statement did not name China, but came a day after one of the country’s largest newspapers, La Prensa, reported that 10 lawmakers were asked by the Chinese Embassy to immediately cancel the trip because it “seriously violates the principle of one China” and constitutes “an intervention in Chinese internal affairs.”

The Chinese Embassy referred a request from The Associated Press to the reporting from La Prensa.

Mulino has lamented that Panama has been drawn into the U.S.-China tensions.

When Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited Panama on his first trip as the U.S. top diplomat in February, he made China’s influence a top issue. Mulino said then that Panama would not be renewing its agreement with China’s Belt and Road Initiative when it expires. The initiative promotes and funds infrastructure and development projects that critics say leave poor member countries heavily indebted to China.

In August, U.S. Ambassador to Panama Kevin Marino Cabrera gave public backing to Panamanian lawmakers who joined the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, a group of hundreds of lawmakers from dozens of countries concerned about how democracies approach Beijing.

In September, the Trump administration said it was restricting visas “for Central American nationals who, while in Central American countries and intentionally acting on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), knowingly direct, authorize, fund, provide significant support to, or carry out activities that undermine the rule of law in Central America.”

Some of the lawmakers who planned to make the Taiwan trip later this week defended their decision. Some said the trip would expose them to models and experiences that could help Panama’s modernization, others cited opportunities for investment and cooperation.

On Wednesday, Cabrera addressed the controversy, saying that China’s Embassy “shouldn’t be involved in those issues.”

A Russian spy ship was on the edge of United Kingdom waters, British defense officials said.

John Healey, the U.K.’s defense secretary, said it was the second time the ship, the Yantar, had been deployed to U.K. waters, SKY News reported. 

“This is a vessel designed for gathering intelligence and mapping our undersea cables,” he said during a news conference. “We deployed a Royal Navy frigate and RAF planes to monitor and track this vessel’s every move, during which the Yantar directed lasers at our pilots.”

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Healey warned Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying, “We see you, we know what you’re doing and if the Yantar travels south this week, we are ready.”

The U.K. plans to build a number of factories to make munitions and military explosives. The first one is expected to break ground next year. 

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Healey issued his warning after a report by the Commons Defence Committee, which said the U.K. “lacks a plan for defending the homeland and overseas territories” and urged the government to launch a “coordinated effort to communicate with the public on the level of threat we face,” the news outlet reported. 

The Yantar isn’t just part of a naval operation but part of Moscow’s Main Directorate of Deep-Sea Research, or GUGI, which primarily works in surveillance in peacetime and sabotage during conflicts. 

“That is why we’ve been determined. Whenever the Yantar comes into British wider waters, we track it, we deter it, and we say to Putin, ‘We are ready, and we do that alongside allies,’” said Healey. 

Arms sales by Italian companies to Ukraine have reached a total of just over €643 million since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

That’s a figure outlined in the Annual Report on Authorised Transit, Import and Export of Armaments which was submitted to parliament in spring. The document is a legal requirement, essential to ensure transparency on what for some is a particularly delicate economic activity.

According to the report, export authorisations to Ukraine grew significantly between 2022 and 2023, from just €3.8 million covering four authorisations to more than €417 million for 15 authorisations.

That value then dropped to just over €222 million in 2024 for just seven authorisations.

The report doesn’t specifiy which companies applied to export arms to Ukraine, nor is it known whether the transactions were actually carried out, although it is assumed that a large part of these sales actually went through.

Therefore, the report doesn’t help shine a light on which Italian manufacturers exported armaments to Ukraine.

However, it is known that the main players in the sector in Italy are RWM, Rehinmetall Italia and Leonardo. Euronews tried to contact Leonardo, asking if it was possible to find out if and what armaments had been sold to Ukraine, but there was no immediate answer.

Which kinda of weapons have been sold by Italian companies?

What is indicated in the report, however, is the type of armaments that have been exported.

In 2023, the €417 million of exports to Ukraine covered seven different categories: weapon systems above 12.7mm calibre, ammunition, fire direction equipment, land vehicles, toxic, chemical, biological, tear gas, radioactive materials, explosives and military fuels and finally electronic equipment.

As far as 2024 is concerned, the list is restricted to the first four categories.

However, these are not the only Italian arms that have reached Ukrainian territory. Those in the report to parliament are in fact only sales by Italian companies to Ukraine.

They do not, therefore, include military aid that has been granted as part of the aid packages prepared by the European Union, the next of which, the twelfth, is scheduled for early December.

‘Little transparency on the part of Italy’

“On this part, which is not covered by the report law 185/90, there has been little transparency on the part of Italy. Unlike what other European nations have decided,our country has in fact preferred not to provide any information about what has actually been supplied by our armed forces,” said Francesco Vignarca, spokesperson and activist of the Italian Network for Peace and Disarmament.

The information available is generally coming from the battlefield, based on what was actually seen at the Russian-Ukrainian front.

“It is difficult to estimate quantities and figures because many of these sales are secret,” said Eleaonora Tafuro Ambrosetti of the Ispi Institute for International Policy Studies.

“Between 2023 and 2024,” she adds, “Italy would have supplied Ukraine with Samp-T air defence batteries.”

Information kept secret so as not to give Russia an advantage

In comments to Euroenews, the press office of the Italian Defence Ministry confirmed that the “content” of Italian supplies as part of the packages to Kyiv is deliberately kept secret.

“Both Minister (Guido) Crosetto and his predecessor chose the same line, designed not to provide a technical advantage to Russia regarding what is on the battlefield. Only Copasir (the Parliamentary Committee for the Security of the Republic) is aware of this, but it too is required to maintain secrecy,” the ministry said.

It is even more difficult to quantify the value of what has been granted from the Italian armed forces’ arsenal.

“The mechanism envisaged by the European Union worked like this: each country that granted arms received a payment back from the EU itself, through the European Peace Facility fund. After a short time, however, it was clarified by Brussels that these funds would not be such as to allow the stocks to be replenished,” Francesco Vignarca of the Italian Network for Peace and Disarmament said.

This means that if a country sent more or less outdated equipment and vehicles to Ukraine and then wanted to buy new ones, it had to pay the difference between what it received from the EU and the purchase price.

This was stated by Defence Minister Guido Crosetto in a hearing before the joint Defence and Foreign Affairs Committees of the House and Senate. Even on this, however, no official figures were provided.

Italy contributed to the European Peace Facility

The Milex Observatory on Italian Military Expenditure indicated that “the only case ‘in the clear’ is that of artillery munitions.”

This accounts for €14.5 million that Article 33 of the Labour Decree of 2023 allocated to Agenzia Industrie Difesato “reinforce (munition) production to continue to respond to supplies to the Ukrainian armed forces without depleting national reserves.”

For the rest, as noted on several occasions by the Senate Budget Service and the Court of Auditors, there is little clarity as to how the disposals to Kyiv affect defence planning on the acquisition of armaments and related ammunitions.

Then there is the fact that Italy has granted €1.4 billion to the European Peace Facility**,** out of the total of €11.1 billion it has collected so far for Ukraine.

In the absence of precise data on how much the same fund has granted to Italy for the weapon systems it has sent, it is in short difficult to understand what the real cost of military support for Ukraine has been.

An estimate published in March 2023 by Milex, based on accessible sources, put the outlay for stockpile replenishment alone at around €1 billion.