Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino hit back after Donald Trump said he would demand that the Panama Canal be “returned” to the US if the vital waterway is not operated as he wishes.

“I want to state precisely that every square meter of the Panama Canal and the surrounding area belongs to PANAMA, and will continue to,” Mulino said in a statement on Sunday.

Trump on Saturday said that “we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to us” if “the principles, moral and legal, of (the US’s) great gesture of giving are not followed”, adding that control of the canal is ” nonsense” given in Panama 25 years ago.

“The fees charged in Panama are ridiculous, unfair”, he added.