Secretary of State Marco Rubio's visit to Central America comes after President Donald Trump has repeatedly promised to take the Panama Canal back.

The new Secretary of State already has said the Hong Kong-based operator of Panama Canal-adjacent ports could be a “big national security and defense problem.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio will visit Panama on his first trip abroad as the top U.S. diplomat after President

China's expanding footprint in Latin America is expected to be high on the agenda when US Secretary of State Marco Rubio visits Panama next week on his first overseas trip since taking office, according to observers.

Mr Rubio will visit Panama, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic. Read more at straitstimes.com.

China may have investments in the operations of the Panama Canal but its soldiers are not operating it.

The visit follows controversial remarks by President Donald Trump last month claiming that "wonderful soldiers of China" were operating the Panama Canal "lovingly but illegally." Trump also threatened that the US would "retake" the key canal, which it originally built in the early 20th century.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is traveling to Panama late next week in his first official diplomatic trip late, amid heightened tensions over President Trump’s threats to retake the Panama

Former Florida senator Marco Rubio will make his first official trip abroad to Central America including Panama, which President Donald Trump has riled with talk of trying to reclaim the Panama Canal.

Marco Rubio plans his first foreign tour as Secretary of State, focusing on migration and the Panama Canal amid U.S.-Panama tensions.

Panama swiftly hit back at Trump's recent remarks, denying Chinese influence and denouncing the US president's threats in a letter to the UN secretary-general. “We reject in its entirety everything that Mr.