Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchison said Thursday it was seeking more than USD 1.5 billion in damages from Panama after the country seized two canal ports caught in the crosshairs of US-China tensions.

CK Hutchison said in the statement that it had begun new arbitration proceedings against Panama and alleged that the Central American country had breached an investment protection treaty through "sovereign acts that targeted a decades-old ports concession" in a "state attack campaign" on the company's assets in the Central American country.