Hegseth announces deeper partnership with Panama in effort to keep control of canal from China

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday announced that the U.S. and Panama have reached an expanded security relationship that hopes to keep control of the Panama Canal away from China.

The announcement comes as Hegseth spends three days in Panama City to meet with the country's leaders as part of a security conference. During the conference, the two countries also signed a memorandum of understanding regarding "cooperative security activities" in the area.

"The era of capitulating to coercion by the communist Chinese is over," Hegseth said. "[China's] growing and adversarial control of strategic land and critical infrastructure in this hemisphere cannot and will not stand. The Panama Canal is key terrain that must be secured by Panama, with America, and not China."

President Donald Trump has been pushing Panama to return control of the canal to the U.S., claiming Panama has given China too much control over it.

Hegseth said that the agreement provides a framework for a deal that would allow U.S. warships to travel through the Panama Canal "first and free." The memorandum also paves the way for the U.S. and Panama to conduct more joint training exercises together.

"These documents reaffirm [the U.S. and Panama's] historic ties and outline how we will deepen our relationship and strengthen bilateral canal security cooperation," Hegseth said. 

The secretary added that the agreement would also establish a rotational joint presence in Panama, by placing some U.S. troops at former military installations like Rodman Naval Station. The U.S. also hopes to revive a jungle operations center.

"We want this to be a golden age for our countries, together, and for this hemisphere," Hegseth said. "We want — in short — not only to make America great again, but to make the Americas great again."

 Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.