Key points
- Hegseth first US defence secretary to visit Panama in decades
- Panama wrestles with US concerns about Chinese investment
- US handed over the waterway to Panama in 1999
ISLAMABAD: The United States will “take back” the Panama Canal from Chinese influence, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday during a visit to the Central American nation.
After talks with Panama’s government, Hegseth vowed to deepen security cooperation with Panamanian security forces and said China would not be allowed to “weaponise” the canal by using Chinese firms’ commercial relationships for espionage, Reuters reported.
“Today, the Panama Canal faces ongoing threats,” Hegseth said in a speech at a police station located at the entry to the shipping route.
The United States will not allow China to “threaten” the operations of the Panama Canal, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth warned during a visit to the Central American nation on Tuesday.
“The United States of America will not allow communist China or any other country to threaten the canal’s operation or integrity,” he added.
Perceived Chinese influence
Hegseth is the second senior US official to visit Panama since President Donald Trump took office in January, vowing to “take back” the US-built canal to counter what he sees as China’s influence over the waterway.
The United States built the more than century-old canal and handed it over to Panama in 1999.
According to AFP, Hegseth met with Panama’s President Jose Raul Mulino, with the two issuing a joint statement that affirmed security ties — though there was a notable discrepancy in the versions released by both sides on the issue of Panama’s sovereignty over the canal.
“Secretary Hegseth recognized Panama’s leadership and inalienable sovereignty over the Panama Canal and its adjacent areas,” read a Spanish-language statement released by Mulino’s office.
That sentence did not appear in the English-language statement released by the US government.
“Wonder of the world”
A Hong Kong company operates two ports at either end of the canal connecting the Atlantic and Pacific, through which five percent of all global shipping passes.
The Trump administration has put immense pressure on Panama to reduce what it calls Chinese influence on the canal, which Washington sees as a threat to US national security.
Panama has denied the assertions that China exercises undue control over the waterway, but its protests on the subject have grown weaker and on the eve of Hegseth’s visit it accused the Hong Kong company of failing to meet its contractual obligations.
“I want to be very clear. China did not build this canal. China does not operate this canal. And China will not weaponize this canal,” Hegseth said, calling it a “wonder of the world.”
Speaking alongside Mulino, Hegseth said the US and Panama together would “take back the Panama Canal from China’s influence” and keep it open to all nations, using the “deterrent power of the strongest, most effective and most lethal fighting force in the world.”
