Panama must reduce Chinese influence around the canal or face possible U.S. action: Rubio

Secretary of State Marco Rubio warns Panama to reduce Chinese influence over the Panama Canal or face U.S. retaliation.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio brought a warning to Panamanian leader José Raúl Mulino on Sunday (February 2, 2025): Immediately reduce what President Donald Trump says is Chinese influence over the Panama Canal area or face potential retaliation from the United States.

Mr. Rubio, traveling to the Central American country and touring the Panama Canal on his first foreign trip as top U.S. diplomat, held face-to-face talks with Mr. Mulino, who has resisted pressure from the new U.S. government over management of a waterway that is vital to global trade.

Mr. Mulino told reporters after the meeting that Rubio made “no real threat of retaking the canal or the use of force.”

Speaking on behalf of Trump, who has demanded that the canal be returned to U.S. control, Mr. Rubio told Mr. Mulino that Trump believed that China’s presence in the canal area may violate a treaty that led the United States to turn the waterway over to Panama in 1999. That treaty calls for the permanent neutrality of the American-built canal.

“Secretary 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,” the State Department said in a summary of the meeting.

The statement was unusually blunt in diplomatic terms, but in keeping with the tenor and tone Trump has set for foreign policy. Trump has been increasing pressure on Washington's neighbors and allies, including the canal demand and announcing Saturday that he was imposing major tariffs on Canada and Mexico. That launched a trade war by prompting retaliation from those close allies.

Mr. Mulino, meanwhile, called his talks with Rubio “respectful” and “positive” and said he did not “feel like there’s a real threat against the treaty and its validity."