Rubio pushes Panama to reduce Chinese influence over canal

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U.S. Secretary of State Marco Mr. Rubio told Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino on Sunday that the Central American ally must immediately reduce Chinese influence over the Panama Canal area or face potential retaliation from the Trump administration. Mr. Mulino said later that “there is no real threat of retaking the canal or the use of force.”

Mr. Rubio, on his first foreign trip as America’s top diplomat, held face-to-face talks with Mr. Mulino, who has resisted pressure from the new U.S. government over Panama’s management of the waterway that is vital to global trade.

Speaking on behalf of President Donald Trump, who has demanded that the canal be returned to U.S. control, Mr. Rubio told Mr. Mulino that Mr. Trump had made a preliminary determination that China’s presence in the canal area violates a treaty that led to the United States turning the waterway over to Panama in 1999. That treaty calls for the permanent neutrality of the American-built canal.

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