Foreign Minister Marco Rubio leaves his first foreign journey as the best diplomat in the country on Saturday. The six -day visit to the visit of Panama, where he started to follow up on President Donald Trump's geopolitical agenda.
Trump used his opening speech to announce his intention to “restore” the Panama channel, and in a call with the correspondents on Friday, a special envoy for Latin America Mauricio Klver Caron said Rubio's main purpose on the trip It will be to re -establish the “golden age” of America.
“This journey indicates … the era of American greatness and the golden age,” he said, adding that “the twenty -first century will also be an American century.”
Former President Donald Trump listens to the Senator Marco Rubio, R Florida, speaking during a gathering at the Miami Dead province in Miami on November 6, 2022. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Kloor Caron pointed out that Rubio's trip to Latin America is the first time that the Foreign Minister has passed to the region as the first official visit abroad in more than 100 years.
“The last time it happened the last time, it was in 1912, when Villanander Chase Nox went to Panama … to supervise the conclusion of the building of the Panama channel and its operations,” he told reporters. “What a great message to return to the golden age of the two Americans, as President Trump mentioned himself.”
Rubio is scheduled to meet with the Benmeic President Jose Raul Mulino.
The husband is expected to discuss immigration and combat drug smuggling The presence of China in the Panama channelThe argue of Rubio and Trump, with which Chinese companies, who operated on both sides of the decisive waterway, argued.
The Trump administration has argued that the grip of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) against all Chinese companies means, in the extension, that CCP works outside the channel and in theory and in theory, the United States trade will close us if it chooses – a major security threat.
The new Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino is waving a speech at his swelling ceremony at the Ataba Convention Center in Panama on July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Mulino has repeatedly denied that Chinese companies had any impact on the operations of the Panama Channel, and said on Thursday that he would not negotiate The ownership of the channel With Rubio.
“It is impossible, I cannot negotiate,” Mulino said at a press conference on Thursday when he was asked about negotiating to control the channel. “This is done. The channel belongs to Panama.”
Mulino appears to have claimed that the confusion about controlling the channel was attributed to his predecessor, which cut ties with Taiwan and diplomatic relations with China in 2017, which eventually allowed the Hong Kong Union to operate the ports on both sides of the channel.
Panama maintains that it controls the channel.
Marsc Elma Sail cargo ship, MSC Elma Sail, on Lake Gaton, near the locks of Agua Clara from Panama channel in Colon City, Panama, on December 28, 2024. (Arnulfo Franco/AFP via Getty Images)
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Kloor Caron has argued that Chinese companies control “everything from force and logistical services to wireless and infrastructure, and so on,” which he said is not just a security threat to American interests in the channel, but to national security in Panama and half of the Western ball.
Rubio El Salvador, Costa Rica, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic will visit, where he will meet with the presidents of each country before returning to the United States on Thursday.
Treating the Chinese effect in these countries, along with gangs, immigration and drug trafficking, will also be on the highest agenda of Rubio.
