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Rubio visiting Central America with the Panama Canal and immigration top of mindBy MATTHEW LEEAP Diplomatic WriterThe Associated PressPANAMA CITYis on his first foreign trip in office, arriving in Central America on Saturday to press President Donald Trump’s top priority —It’s an unusual destination for the maiden voyage of America’s top diplomat, whose predecessors have generally favored Europe or Asia for their initial outings.
Indeed, Rubio’s first stop on the five-nation tour Saturday is Panama, whose president, José Raúl Mulino, says there will be no negotiation with the United States over ownership of the canal. He said he hoped Rubio’s visit would instead focus on shared interests like migration and combating drug trafficking.Yet Rubio said he will make clear Trump’s intent. In an interview Thursday with SiriusXM host Megyn Kelly, he said Trump’s desire to“We’re going to address that topic,” he said.
Despite Mulino’s rejection of any negotiation over ownership, some believe Panama may be open to a compromise under which canal operations on both sides are taken away from the Hong Kong-based Hutchison Ports company that was given a 25-year no-bid extension to run them. An audit into the suitability of that extension is already under way and could lead to a rebidding process.
“There’s been a lot of heavy rhetoric and it will be up Rubio to clarify it,” Berg said, adding that some kind of compromise was possible “but we’ll have to see if he’s really serious about taking it back. If that’s the case then nothing short of that will satisfy him.”
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