US Secretary of State Rubio set to visit Panama amid Trump’s canal remarks

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is set to visit Panama — the country whose canal President Donald Trump has suggested he’d seize — as early as next week, according to three U.S. officials briefed on the plan.

The Rubio trip — scheduled to run from late January to early February — also includes Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic, the officials said, News.Az reports, citing Politico.

The trip is expected to be Rubio’s first foreign travel as secretary of State, said one former official who was also briefed on the plan. All were granted anonymity as they weren’t authorized to discuss travel plans publicly.

All of the individuals also stressed that the travel plans are tentative.

Late Wednesday, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce confirmed the overall travel plan and said Rubio was choosing to prioritize the Western Hemisphere because “it’s where we live.”

“We won’t continue to ignore the region as other administrations have,” Bruce said. “Engaging with our neighbors is a vital element in addressing migration, supply chains and economic growth, which are key to Secretary Rubio’s pursuit of foreign policy focused on making America strong, prosperous, and safe.”

Rubio is expected to use the travel to cover at least two issues at the top of MAGA foreign policy agenda: curtailing illegal migration and Trump’s push to reclaim the Panama Canal, according to one of the current officials and the former official.

Panamanian officials have bristled at Trump’s comments on the strategically important waterway.

“The Panama Canal belongs to Panama and will continue to belong to Panama,” Panama’s president, José Raúl Mulino, said at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week. “The Panama Canal is not a concession or a gift from the United States.”

Other countries Rubio plans to visit, including Guatemala and El Salvador, have also served as major waypoints for migrants trying to reach the U.S. southern border.

In one of his first memos to State Department employees, Rubio called mass migration “among the most consequential issues of our time” and said that under his watch, the department would work with countries in the Western Hemisphere to curtail illegal immigration and negotiate “the repatriation of illegal immigrants.”

News.Az