US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday threatened action against Panama without immediate changes to reduce Chinese influence on the canal, but the country’s leader insisted he was not afraid of a US invasion and offered talks.
On his first trip overseas as the top US diplomat, Rubio took a guided tour of the canal, accompanied by its Panamanian administrator as a South Korean-affiliated oil tanker and Marshall Islands-flagged cargo ship passed through the vital link between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
However, Rubio was said to have had a firmer message in private, telling Panama that US President Donald Trump had determined that the country had breached terms of the treaty that handed over the canal in 1999.
Photo: AP
He cited the “influence and control” of China over the canal, through which about 40 percent of US container traffic passes.
Meeting Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino, Rubio “made clear that this status quo is unacceptable and that absent immediate changes, it would require the United States to take measures necessary to protect its rights under the treaty,” US Department of State spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said.
She did not spell out the consequences. However, Trump has repeatedly refused to rule out military force.
Nearly 75 percent of cargo that went through the Panama Canal in fiscal 2024 came from the US, with 21 percent from China, followed by Japan and South Korea, official statistics show.
Rubio and Trump say China has gained so much power through surrounding infrastructure that it could shut the canal down in a potential conflict and spell catastrophe for the US.
“China’s running the Panama Canal,” Trump said on Sunday.
“It was not given to China, it was given to Panama foolishly,” he told reporters as he returned to Washington from a weekend in Florida.
“But they violated the agreement and we’re going to take it back, or something very powerful is going to happen,” he said.
He later added that he did not think US troops would be “necessary” in Panama.
Mulino painted a rosier portrait of his meeting with Rubio, whom he welcomed at his official residence in the tropical capital’s old quarter.
He also announced that Panama would not be renewing an agreement to participate in China’s Belt and Road project, which the country had signed onto under a previous administration.
“I don’t feel that there is any real threat at this time against the treaty, its validity, or much less of the use of military force to seize the canal,” Mulino told reporters.
“Sovereignty over the canal is not in question,” he said, proposing technical-level talks with Washington to clear up concerns.
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