Rubio departs on Saturday on his first foreign trip, and will visit the canal and meet Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino, the first talks between the countries since President Donald Trump’s threat to take control of the canal.
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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. File Image- AFP
Ahead of Rubio’s visit to the country, US Special Envoy for Latin America Mauricio Claver-Carone said on Friday that China’s presence around the Panama Canal is a national security concern that Panama’s government has to deal with.
Rubio will arrive in Panama on Saturday on his first official foreign trip as America’s top diplomat, signaling the importance that both he and Trump place on securing the canal. Although immigration will be a major topic of conversation in Panama and at his other stops, Rubio said the canal issue is a priority.
Rubio will also visit El Salvador, Costa Rica, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic, where the Trump administration’s efforts to repatriate migrants from the region and stem migration will be on the agenda, Claver-Carone said in a briefing call with reporters.
Claver-Carone said it was not Mulino’s fault but that under previous Panamanian governments, China’s presence around the Canal ”got completely out of hand” and Mulino ”has to deal with it.”
”This increasingly creeping presence of Chinese companies and actors throughout the Canal Zone, in everything from ports and logistics to telecommunications infrastructure and otherwise, which is very concerning, not only frankly to the national security of the United States, but frankly to the national security of Panama and to the entire Western Hemisphere,” he said. ”So that will be an issue of discussion.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio says President Donald Trump’s desire to acquire Greenland and retake control of the Panama Canal is driven by legitimate national security interests stemming from growing concerns about Chinese activity and influence in the Arctic and in Latin America.
Ahead of a trip to Central America that will start in Panama this weekend, Rubio said Thursday that he could not predict if Trump would succeed in buying Greenland from Denmark or restoring American authority over the Panama Canal while he is office. But he said the attention that Trump will give to both would have