A cargo ship is towed at the Panama Canal's Agua Clara locks on Gatun Lake in Colon, Panama, on Jan. 29, 2025. On the eve of a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino ruled out any negotiations with the U.S. over the canal.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio's trip to Central America, including Panama, is partially about countering China, a State Department spokesperson told Fox Business, as new President Donald Trump is pushing to "take back" the Panama Canal.

A key focus of Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s visit to Central America this week — his first trip as America’s top diplomat — will be to counter China’s growing influence in the region, the State Department’s top spokesperson said this week,

Secretary of State Rubio spoke with China's Director of the CCP Central Foreign Affairs Commission and Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio's visit to Central America aims to counter China's growing influence. Amid President Trump's agenda to 'take back' the Panama Canal, concerns rise over U.S. intentions.

The State Department has not commented on whether Rubio will meet with his PRC counterpart at the Munich Security Conference

The United States under the administration of newly-inaugurated President Donald Trump affirmed its “ironclad commitment” to the Philippines amid the “dangerous” actions of China in the South China Sea.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio reaffirmed Washington's commitment to Manila and condemned Beijing for its "dangerous and destabilising" actions in the Sea, in his first phone call with Philippine Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo.

Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino ruled out discussing control of the Panama Canal with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio when he visits the Central American country. "I cannot negotiate and much less open a process of negotiation on the Canal,

Pepperstone analyst Michael Brown commented: "The nub of the issue here seems to be that the firm has created a model which seems to be on a par with those created by the likes of OpenAI, for a considerably lower 'training cost'.

Former U.S. senator from Florida Marco Rubio jumps into new role as secretary of state with flurry of phone calls, planned trip to Panama.

Such high-level communication includes a series of meetings held during Vice-President Han Zheng's trip to the US last week as Xi's special representative to attend Trump's inauguration ceremony. On Friday, Wang told Rubio the "two heads of state have pointed out the direction and set the tone for China-US relations".