The United States will take back the Panama Canal from Chinese influence, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday during a visit to the Central American nation.
Hegseth, following talks with Panama’s government, vowed to deepen security cooperation with Panama’s forces and said China would not be allowed to “weaponize” the canal by using Chinese firms’ commercial relationships for espionage.
“Together, we will take back the Panama Canal from China’s influence,” Hegseth said, speaking at a pier renovated with U.S. assistance in Panama City.
“China did not build this canal. China does not operate this canal and China will not weaponize this canal. Together with Panama in the lead, we will keep the canal secure and available for all nations.”
More than 40% of U.S. container traffic, valued at roughly US$270 billion a year, goes through the Panama Canal, accounting for more than two-thirds of vessels passing each day through the world’s second-busiest interoceanic waterway.
Hegseth is expected to get a close-up look at the Panama Canal later on Tuesday, the first full day of a rare visit to a nation still unsettled by Trump’s threats to take back the canal.
While Hegseth spoke about removing Chinese influence, Trump has spoken in broader terms and not ruled out using military force, if necessary.
Hegseth is the first U.S. defense secretary to visit in decades, and his trip follows reports that the Trump administration has requested options from the U.S. military to ensure access to the canal, which the United States built more than a century ago and handed over to Panama in 1999.
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Trump has complained that was a bad deal for the United States.
Hegseth was greeted by Panama Public Security Minister Frank Abrego and held closed-door meetings with President Jose Raul Mulino and other officials.
Given Trump’s tough rhetoric, the stakes are high for Hegseth’s visit.
“On the whole, this hasn’t been a winning issue for the United States in terms of public diplomacy in Panama,” said Ryan Berg, director of the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Still, current and former U.S. officials and experts say the United States has found a willing partner in tackling Chinese influence in Mulino.
In February, Mulino announced Panama’s formal move to exit China’s Belt and Road Initiative and he has aided Trump’s crackdown on migrants.
He has accepted deportation flights of non-Panamanians and worked to stem migration from South America by those crossing through his country’s dangerous Darien jungle.
Hegseth praised Mulino, saying his government understood the threat from China, and his remarks about Panama being in the lead on addressing the canal’s security concerns appeared to be a nod to Panamanian sensitivities.
Hegseth, a U.S. military veteran and former Fox News host, has enthusiastically backed Trump’s southern-focused security agenda, by means such as dispatching U.S. troops to the U.S. border with Mexico and offering military aircraft for deportation flights.
Trump has falsely claimed that China is operating the canal, something even Hegseth said was not true on Tuesday, and that Chinese soldiers are present.
But experts acknowledge U.S. security concerns, particularly regarding espionage, with an expansive Chinese commercial presence in Panama that also includes plans by Chinese firms to build a bridge over the canal.
Last month, Trump celebrated a deal led by U.S. firm BlackRock to buy most of the US$22.8-billion ports business of Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchison, including its ports on either end of the Panama Canal.
Trump said the purchase was an example of how the United States was “reclaiming” the canal.
But China has criticized it, with the market regulator saying it will carry out an antitrust review of the deal.
Current and former U.S. officials say the Panama Canal would be critical for the passage of U.S. warships during any future conflict in Asia, since Navy vessels would transit from the Atlantic to the Pacific to support the war effort.
Even without blocking the canal, China could have an enormous advantage by being able to surveil vessels passing through it.
Still, John Feeley, who was U.S. ambassador to Panama from 2015 to 2018, disputed the Trump administration’s assertion that China’s presence in Panama was a violation of the U.S.-Panama treaty.
“What’s not legitimate about the way Trump has gone about this is the bullying tactic that he’s used, which is to claim that there has been a violation of the neutrality treaty. There hasn’t been,” Feeley said.
Mulino has defended Panama’s administration of the canal, saying it has been handled responsibly for world trade, including that of the United States, and that it “is, and will continue to be, Panamanian.”
—Reporting by Phil Stewart; additional reporting by Idrees Ali; Editing by Clarence Fernandez, Rod Nickel and Alistair Bell