The United States is partnering with Panama as part of efforts to secure the Panama Canal and counter the Chinese Communist Party’s “malign influence” in the region, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on April 9.
U.S. and Panamanian officials signed a memorandum of understanding on bilateral security matters in the region that will help expand joint training exercises between the two countries and improve overall interoperability between their military forces, Hegseth said.
The agreement will also reestablish a rotational joint presence at a handful of previously operational U.S. military installations, including Rodman Naval Station and Howard Air Force Base, as well as Fort Sherman.
Hegseth noted that jungle operations would be revived at an operations center so that U.S. and Panamanian troops could train side by side.
Officials also plan to sign a separate declaration related to the security and operation of the Panama Canal that would provide a framework for U.S. warships and auxiliary ships to travel “first and free” through the canal, the defense secretary said.
Overall, the documents signed reaffirm the United States’ and Panama’s “historic ties” and outline how the two countries will deepen their relationship and “strengthen bilateral canal security cooperation,” Hegseth said.
The agreements will see the two nations expand their security relationship when it comes to information sharing, enhanced cyber cooperation, bilateral security dialogues, and canal infrastructure improvements.
“The era of capitulating to coercion by the communist Chinese is over,” he said.
He also said that the Chinese regime’s “growing and adversarial control of strategic land and critical infrastructure in this hemisphere cannot and will not stand.”
This, he said, gives the communist regime the potential to conduct surveillance activities across Panama and “makes Panama and the United States less secure, less prosperous and less sovereign.”
In response, Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian on April 9 accused the United States of “bullying” and of sabotaging the regime’s cooperation with Panama.
The Panama Canal is the world’s second-busiest interoceanic waterway. More than 40 percent of U.S. container traffic, valued at roughly $270 billion per year, goes through the canal, accounting for more than two-thirds of the vessels that pass through it each day.
Hegseth’s three-day visit to Panama comes after the Panamanian government announced that CK Hutchison’s lease was being audited and concluded that there were irregularities in its renewal, including that it had failed to pay about $1.2 billion to the Central American country.
“We firmly believe that respect for legal certainty gives companies and investors the certainty that Panama is a safe country in which to invest,” its subsidiary, Panama Ports Co. (PPC), said in the statement. “PPC continues to call for respectful coordination and consultation to protect the concession that has provided high-quality services for the benefit of Panama and the world.”
