“These canals wouldn’t exist without the United States,” the president said.
President Donald Trump said on April 26 that American military and commercial vessels should be allowed to pass “free” through Panama and the Suez Canal.
“These canals wouldn’t exist without the United States,” Trump wrote on his true social platform. “I asked Secretary of State Marco Rubio to take care of and commemorate the situation!”
The Panama Canal, which extends across the isthmus connecting North and South America, rapidly crosses the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, carrying around about 40% of US container traffic each year.
Americans, British leaders and businessmen discussed plans to build canals throughout the 1800s as a way to quickly and cheaply transport fast and cheap goods without travelling to the southern tip of South America and reaching between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. The United States built the canal between 1903 and 1914.
President Jimmy Carter will negotiate with the Torijos Carter Treaty, ratified by the Senate in 1978, which will abandon its control of the movement over Panama. It finally happened in 1999.
Trump has previously said he wants to “recover” the canal and put it under US control, suggesting that economic or military force will not rule it out from retrieving transport passageways.
Earlier this month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegses said the US partnered with Panama to secure the Panama Canal to counter China’s “malignant effects.”
“The Panama Canal is an important terrain that must be secured by Panama along with the United States, not China,” Hegses said at a joint press conference with Panama’s Minister of Public Security, Frank Abrego.
The two countries have signed a memorandum of understanding on regional bilateral security issues, where they see the expansion of joint training exercises between the US and Panama, while improving interoperability between the military, the secretary said.
The Suez Canal, which connects the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, was built in the late 1800s after plans to build a transport corridor were debated since ancient Egyptian times.
However, recent military conflicts and terrorist attacks in the region have disrupted transport traffic travelling the Suez Canal, and have reappeared several ships around the Southern Cape of Good Hope in Africa instead of using corridors.
The Iran-backed Houthi terrorist group has caused repeated transport disruptions in the region, which estimates the canals generated approximately $9.4 billion in Egyptian revenues between 2022 and 2023.
The Trump administration has approved multiple targeted strikes for the Hoosis this year. Trump said the strike will continue until the group stops disrupting shipments between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea.
Catabella Roberts contributed to this report.
