TEHRAN, February 02 (MNA) – United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio has kicked off his first official foreign trip with a stop in Panama, a longtime US ally shaken by President Donald Trump’s extraordinary threat to seize the Panama Canal.Kicking off his five-nation tour of the region, Rubio is expected to tour Panama’s strategic waterway and meet President Jose Raul Mulino on Sunday.

“It’s no accident that my first trip abroad as secretary of state will keep me in the hemisphere,” he wrote in a Wall Street Journal column on Friday, according to Al Jazeera.

The canal is a crucial link between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and coasts, with 40 percent of US container traffic going through it.

Trump has refused to rule out military force to seize the Panama Canal, which the US handed over at the end of 1999, saying China has exerted too much control through its investment in surrounding ports.

In his inaugural address last month, Trump said the US will be “taking it back”, and refused to back down on Friday.

“They’ve already offered to do many things,” Trump said of Panama, “but we think it’s appropriate that we take it back.” He alleged that Panama was taking down Chinese-language signs to cover up how “they have totally violated the agreement” on the canal.

“Marco Rubio is going over to talk to the gentleman that’s in charge,” Trump told reporters.

Rubio’s mission also comes on the heels of Trump-imposed tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China, and the freezing of nearly all US foreign aid – moves that signal a far more aggressive foreign policy.

MNA