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PANAMA CITY: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio brought a warning to Panamanian leader José Raúl Mulino on Sunday: Immediately reduce what President Donald Trump says is Chinese influence over the Panama Canal area or face potential retaliation from the United States.
Rubio, traveling to the Central American country and touring the Panama Canal on his first foreign trip as top US diplomat, held face-to-face talks with Mulino, who has resisted pressure from the new US government over management of a waterway that is vital to global trade.
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 US control, Rubio told 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.
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.”
The president did say Panama would not be renewing its agreement with China’s Belt and Road Initiative when it expires. Panama joined the initiative, which promotes and funds infrastructure and development projects that critics say leave poor member countries heavily indebted to China, after dropping diplomatic recognition of Taiwan and recognizing Beijing.
Rubio later toured the canal at sunset with its administrator, Ricaurte Vásquez, who has said the waterway will remain in Panama’s hands and open to all countries. Rubio crossed the lock and visited the control tower, looking down over the water below, where a red tanker was passing through.
Earlier, about 200 people marched in the capital, carrying Panamanian flags and shouting “Marco Rubio out of Panama,” “Long live national sovereignty” and “One territory, one flag” while the meeting was going on. Some burned a banner with images of Trump and Rubio after being stopped short of the presidential palace by riot police.

Rubio also pressed Trump’s top focus — curbing illegal immigration — telling Panama’s president that it was important to collaborate on the work and thanked him for taking back migrants. Rubio’s trip, however, comes as a US foreign aid funding freeze and stop-work orders have shut down US-funded programs targeting illegal migration and crime in Central American countries.
In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece on Friday, Rubio said mass migration, drugs and hostile policies pursued by Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela have wreaked havoc, and port facilities at either end of the canal are run by a China-based company, leaving the waterway vulnerable to pressure from the Beijing government.
“The president’s been pretty clear he wants to administer the canal again,” Rubio said Thursday. “Obviously, the Panamanians are not big fans of that idea. That message has been brought very clear.”
Despite Mulino’s rejection of any negotiation over ownership, some believe Panama may be open to a compromise under which canal operations on both sides are taken away from the Hong Kong-based Hutchison Ports company, which was given a 25-year no-bid extension to run them. An audit into the suitability of that extension is already underway and could lead to a rebidding process.
What is unclear is whether Trump would accept the transfer of the concession to an American or European company as meeting his demands, which appear to cover more than just operations.
Rubio’s trip, which will also take him to El Salvador, Costa Rica, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic, comes amid a freeze in US foreign assistance. The State Department said Sunday that Rubio had approved waivers for certain critical programs in countries he is visiting but details of those were not immediately available.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Sunday that he would seek a strong trade relationship with the US after President Donald Trump suggested he would slap Europe with tariffs after he hit America’s biggest trading partners — Canada, Mexico and China — with import taxes.
Starmer spoke to reporters while hosting German Chancellor Olaf Scholz at his country estate on the eve of a mission to improve relations with the European Union.
“In the discussions that I have had with President Trump, that is what we have centered on, a strong trading relationship,” he said. “So it is very early days.”
Canada and Mexico ordered retaliatory tariffs in response to Trump’s announcement that the US on Tuesday will stick a 25 percent levy on imports from Canada and Mexico and 10 percent on goods from China. Trump said he “absolutely” plans to impose tariffs on the EU.
The UK left the EU in 2020, following a referendum in 2016. Trump, who supported the Leave side in the Brexit vote, has not yet said whether he plans to target the UK with tariffs.
The tit-for-tat tariffs have triggered fears of a global trade war.
“Tariff increases really right across the world can have a really damaging impact on global growth and trade, so I don’t think it’s what anybody wants to see,” British Home Secretary Yvette Cooper told the BBC.
Starmer is heading to Belgium to meet with EU chiefs Monday, where the UK leader is aiming for a relationship “reset”.
While ruling out rejoining the EU trade bloc five years after Brexit, Starmer said he wants to forge a closer relationship on defense, energy and trade.
“I think that is certainly in the UK’s best interest, I do believe it’s in the EU’s best interest, and already I hope that in the last seven months there’s been a manifest difference in approach, tone and relationship,” he said.
Starmer hosted Scholz at Chequers, the prime minister’s country residence in Buckinghamshire 30 miles (50 kilometers) northwest of London, where the two leaders discussed Ukraine and the Middle East, according to a Starmer spokesperson.
The prime minister spoke of their common approach to “key issues and challenges,” including their shared commitment to Kyiv as the war with Russia enters its fourth year this month.
The two agreed that Russia’s invasion had emphasized the need to beef up and coordinate defense production across Ukraine, according to a readout of the meeting from a Starmer spokesperson. The UK and Germany signed a defense pact in October, described by officials as the first of its kind between two NATO member countries, to boost European security amid rising Russian aggression.
The British government’s strategic defense review later this year will include lessons learned in Ukraine and the need to outmaneuver Russian President Vladimir Putin’s hostile acts across the continent, Starmer said.
Starmer thanked Scholz for visiting in the middle of a difficult re-election campaign. Scholz’s center-left Social Democrats are lagging in the polls behind the center-right Christian Democratic Union and the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, with three weeks to go before the Feb. 23 vote.
“When I started as prime minister seven months ago now, I was determined to strengthen the relationship between our two countries — already very good, but I thought it could be stronger on a number of fronts,” said Starmer, leader of the center-left Labour Party. “And thanks to your leadership, I think we’ve made real progress.”
Scholz said the visit that included a walk around the grounds of the estate and a lunch was a “good sign of the very good relations between our two countries, and indeed between the two of us.”