Blinken Brushes Off Trump Threats On Panama Canal

Outgoing US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday dismissed as bluster President-elect Donald Trump's threats to seize the Panama Canal, instead anticipating a more traditional strategy of diversifying supply chains.

"On the Panama Canal, we have a treaty, we have a settled policy of many years, and that's not going to change," Blinken said at a farewell news conference.

"I think it doesn't warrant spending a lot of time talking about it," he said of Trump's threats.

At a freewheeling news conference this month in Florida, Trump refused to rule out using force to seize the Panama Canal and even Greenland, an autonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark.

Trump has pointed to rising Chinese influence in the Panama Canal, inaugurated in 1914 and built by the United States, mostly with Afro-Caribbean labor.

Panama took full control of the canal at the end of 1999 under a deal shepherded by late president Jimmy Carter, who saw a moral responsibility to treat Panama more respectfully.

Alluding to concerns about China's clout in industry around the world, Blinken said that President Joe Biden's administration has made "extraordinary progress" in seeking "a greater diversity of supply chains."

"So that's where the focus should be, and that's where I expect the focus actually will be," Blinken said.

But Marco Rubio, tapped by Trump as the next secretary of state, said at his Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday: "This is not a joke. The Panama Canal issue is a very serious one."

He asked whether Chinese companies could take control of surrounding ports and, under orders of Beijing, decide to "shut it down or impede our transit."

"This is a legitimate issue that needs to be confronted," Rubio said.

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