Panama Says Us Has Recognized Panamanian Control Over Canal

Panama says the U.S. government has recognized the country’s sovereignty over the Panama Canal, but it’s unclear if Washington fully agrees with that assertion.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, after meeting in private with Panama’s top officials in the country on Tuesday, “acknowledged the sovereignty of Panama over the Panama Canal,” Minister for Public Security Frank Abrego told reporters in a press conference alongside the Pentagon chief on Wednesday. 

And in a Spanish-language version of a joint U.S.-Panama statement, released late Tuesday, the Central American country said Hegseth “recognized the leadership and inalienable sovereignty of Panama over the Panama Canal and its adjacent areas.”

But the English version of the statement, released by the Pentagon, did not include that phrasing regarding Panama’s control over the waterway.

The discrepancy comes after earlier rhetoric from President Trump, who threatened that Washington would take over the waterway as a way to secure it from Chinese control. Panama, however, denies that Beijing controls the vital shipping lane.

Hegseth said Wednesday the U.S. was “helping to take back the Panama Canal from communist Chinese influence," with the two signing agreements to deepen security cooperation between the two countries.

He appeared to dodge a question of whether the U.S. recognizes Panama's sovereignty over the canal, saying, “We certainly understand that the Panama Canal is in Panama, and protecting Panamanian sovereignty from malign influence is important.”

He explained that when Trump has said the U.S. would take back the Panama Canal, what he means is “we’re taking back the canal from Chinese influence, that involves partnership with the United States and Panama.”

That partnership, he said, will involve U.S. troops training on Panamanian soil “by invitation through rotational, joint exercises.”

Abrego, meanwhile, said Panama would not allow permanent U.S. military bases on its soil but would “keep a cooperation in terms of security with the U.S.”

Roughly $270 billion a year in U.S. goods, or about 40 percent of American container traffic, passes through the Panama Canal annually. 

Hegseth’s visit, the first visit by a Pentagon chief to Panama in decades, reveal Trump’s continued fixation on the waterway, which has been controlled by the Central American country since1999. 

Trump has complained the U.S. got a bad deal in handing off the shipping lane in a treaty signed during the Carter administration.

As part of the U.S.-Panama agreements signed this week, the two countries pledged to work out how to compensate the U.S. for “payment of tolls and other charges,” when its ship pass through the canal. 

Panama will also guarantee “the expedited transit of warships and auxiliary vessels of the Republic of Panama and the United States.”