Secretary of State Marco Rubio leaves for his first abroad journey because the nation’s high diplomat on Saturday. Rubio’s first cease on the six-day go to is Panama as he units out on pursuing President Donald Trump’s geopolitical agenda.
Trump used his inaugural deal with to proclaim his intent to “take again” the Panama Canal, and in a name with reporters on Friday, Particular Envoy for Latin America Mauricio Claver-Carone mentioned Rubio’s chief goal of the journey could be in re-establishing a “Golden Age” for America.
“This journey signifies… that period of American greatness and the Golden Age,” he mentioned, including that “the twenty first century may even be an American century.”
Former President Donald Trump listens as Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., speaks throughout a rally on the Miami-Dade County Honest and Exposition in Miami on Nov. 6, 2022. (Joe Raedle/Getty Photographs)
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Claver-Carone identified that Rubio’s journey to Latin America is the primary time a secretary of state has traveled to the area as their first official go to overseas in over 100 years.
“Final time that occurred, I imagine, was in 1912, when Philander Chase Knox went to Panama… to supervise the conclusion of the Panama Canal’s building and operations,” he informed reporters. “What an awesome message to harken again to that Golden Age of the Americas, as President Trump himself has talked about.”
Rubio is scheduled to fulfill with Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino.
The pair are anticipated to debate migration, combating drug trafficking and China’s presence within the Panama Canal, which Rubio and Trump have argued has develop into overrun by Chinese language corporations working at both finish of the essential waterway.
The Trump administration has argued that the Chinese language Communist Celebration’s (CCP) tight grip over all Chinese language corporations signifies that, in extension, the CCP is working out of the canal and will, in idea, shut it to U.S. commerce if it selected to — posing a big safety risk.
New Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino waves earlier than giving a speech at his swearing-in ceremony on the Atlapa Conference Centre in Panama Metropolis on July 1, 2024. (AP Photograph/Matias Delacroix)
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Mulino has repeatedly denied that Chinese language corporations have any affect over the operations of the Panama Canal, and on Thursday mentioned he wouldn’t be negotiating possession of the canal with Rubio.
“It’s unimaginable, I can’t negotiate,” Mulino mentioned throughout a Thursday press convention when requested about negotiating management of the canal, The Related Press reported. “That’s achieved. The canal belongs to Panama.”
Mulino apparently claimed confusion over management of the canal was attributed to his predecessor, who severed ties with Taiwan and established diplomatic relations with China in 2017, ultimately permitting a Hong Kong consortium to function ports at each ends of the canal.
Panama maintains that it controls the canal.
The Marshall Islands cargo ship Cape Hellas, left, and the Portuguese cargo ship MSC Elma sail on Gatun Lake close to the Agua Clara Locks of the Panama Canal in Colon Metropolis, Panama, on Dec. 28, 2024. (Arnulfo Franco/AFP through Getty Photographs)
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Claver-Carone argued that Chinese language corporations management “all the things from pressure and logistics to telecommunications, infrastructure, and in any other case,” which he mentioned shouldn’t be solely a safety risk to U.S. pursuits within the canal, however to the nationwide safety of Panama and the Western Hemisphere.
Rubio can be slated to go to El Salvador, Costa Rica, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic, the place he’ll meet with the presidents of every nation earlier than returning to the U.S. on Thursday.
Addressing Chinese language affect in these international locations, together with gang violence, migration and drug trafficking, may even be high of Rubio’s agenda.