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Cyprus Cancels Meet with Lavrov after EU Says Will Step Up Sanctions

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov meets with his Thai counterpart Don Pramudwinai in Moscow on September 6, 2022. (Handout / Russian Foreign Ministry / AFP)
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov meets with his Thai counterpart Don Pramudwinai in Moscow on September 6, 2022. (Handout / Russian Foreign Ministry / AFP)
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Cyprus Cancels Meet with Lavrov after EU Says Will Step Up Sanctions

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov meets with his Thai counterpart Don Pramudwinai in Moscow on September 6, 2022. (Handout / Russian Foreign Ministry / AFP)
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov meets with his Thai counterpart Don Pramudwinai in Moscow on September 6, 2022. (Handout / Russian Foreign Ministry / AFP)

Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades cancelled a meeting scheduled with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in New York after EU foreign ministers agreed to prepare new sanctions against Russia, a government official said on Thursday.

The two had been expected to meet on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly late on Wednesday, Reuters said.

"In anticipation of the decisions of the EU the guidelines from Brussels to avoid bilateral meetings with Russia were followed," Cyprus government spokesman Marios Pelekanos told state radio.

Cypriot Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides had earlier participated in a meeting of the EU's foreign ministers in NewYork.

EU member Cyprus has close political and economic ties with Russia, but has followed Brussels lead in imposing sanctions on the country in response to its invasion of Ukraine.

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Trump Says He Might Demand Panama Hand over Canal

This handout picture released by the Panama Canal Authority on August 30, 2024, shows the container ship MSC Marie, of 366 meters long and 51 meters wide, transiting the Panama Canal in Panama. (Handout / Panama Canal Authority / AFP)
This handout picture released by the Panama Canal Authority on August 30, 2024, shows the container ship MSC Marie, of 366 meters long and 51 meters wide, transiting the Panama Canal in Panama. (Handout / Panama Canal Authority / AFP)
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Trump Says He Might Demand Panama Hand over Canal

This handout picture released by the Panama Canal Authority on August 30, 2024, shows the container ship MSC Marie, of 366 meters long and 51 meters wide, transiting the Panama Canal in Panama. (Handout / Panama Canal Authority / AFP)
This handout picture released by the Panama Canal Authority on August 30, 2024, shows the container ship MSC Marie, of 366 meters long and 51 meters wide, transiting the Panama Canal in Panama. (Handout / Panama Canal Authority / AFP)

President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday accused Panama of charging excessive rates for use of the Panama Canal and said that if Panama did not manage the canal in an acceptable fashion, he would demand the US ally hand it over.

In an evening post on Truth Social, Trump also warned he would not let the canal fall into the "wrong hands," and he seemed to warn of potential Chinese influence on the passage, writing the canal should not be managed by China.

The post was an exceedingly rare example of a US leader saying he could push a sovereign country to hand over territory. It also underlines an expected shift in US diplomacy under Trump, who has not historically shied away from threatening allies and using bellicose rhetoric when dealing with counterparts.

The United States largely built the canal and administrated territory surrounding the passage for decades. But the US government fully handed control of the canal to Panama in 1999 after a period of joint administration.

"The fees being charged by Panama are ridiculous, especially knowing the extraordinary generosity that has been bestowed to Panama by the US," Trump wrote in his Truth Social post.

"It was not given for the benefit of others, but merely as a token of cooperation with us and Panama. If the principles, both moral and legal, of this magnanimous gesture of giving are not followed, then we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to us, in full, and without question."

The Panamanian embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.