Rubio, who started touring five countries in the area, will visit Panama’s strategic waterway on Sunday and meet President Jose Raul Mulino.
“It’s not a coincidence that my first trip as Secretary of State will keep me in the hemisphere,” he wrote on a Wall Street Journal on Friday.
The canal is an important link between the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and the coast, passing 40 % of US containers traffic.
Trump refused to eliminate the military power to seize the Panama Canal, which was handed over by the United States, and said that China had too many control through investment in the surrounding ports.
In his inauguration speech last month, Trump said that the United States refused to “regain it” and refused to retreat on Friday. “They have already offered a lot of things,” said Trump, “But we think it’s appropriate to regain it.”
He argued that Panama had defeated Chinese signs to hide the canal’s “completely violating the agreement”. “Marco Rubio is going to talk to the gentleman in charge,” Trump told reporters.
Rubio’s mission is brought shortly after the tariffs imposed by Trump in Canada, Mexico, and China, and almost all the freezing of almost all US foreign aids will show much more aggressive foreign policy.
MNA