Panama and the United States have agreed to deepen their military training cooperation, despite the US’ tough rhetoric. The US Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, who is the first Pentagon chief in decades to visit Panama, said that the canal is a key region that Panama will secure together with the US, not China. During Hegseth’s visit, the US and Panama announced joint statements on deepening security cooperation. However, a sentence in the Spanish version of the statement, which was not in the English version, mentioned Panama’s sovereignty over the canal. The agreement allows the US to station troops at the Panama Canal. The agreement signed on Wednesday and published by the Panamanian government on Thursday allows the US military to conduct training, exercises and other activities in the areas around the canal controlled by Panama. However, the establishment of military bases is excluded. While the agreement does not resurrect US military bases, the US can still send an indefinite number of soldiers to the Central American country. More than 40% of the US container traffic worth about $270 billion a year passes through the canal, accounting for more than two-thirds of the ships that pass through the world’s second-largest artificial waterway every day. The Trump administration had reportedly asked the US military for options to secure access to the canal. The United States built the Panama Canal over a century ago and handed it over to Panama in 1999. Trump has complained that this was a bad deal for the US.
US Military Presence at Panama Canal Increases Amid Joint Security Cooperation Declaration
