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,

Rubio's stop in Panama also comes as Trump in recent weeks has said he wants the Panama Canal back under U.S. control, claiming that “American ships are being severely overcharged and not treated fairly in any way,

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), the chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, discussed a scenario in which China could disrupt U.S. trade by blocking off the canal.

On Monday, representatives of left-wing organizations in the Dominican Republic strongly opposed the upcoming visit of U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, declaring him “persona non grata.” They criticized the visit as an effort to deepen the country’s dependence on the United States in economic,

Washington, DC.- Newly appointed U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is set to embark on his inaugural tour, which includes a visit to the Dominican Republic and several other Latin American countries.

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.

Marco Rubio will head overseas late next week; he's also scheduled to visit Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio plans to visit Panama as part of his trip to Latin America next week. This emphasizes the seriousness of President Donald Trump's intentions to return the Panama Canal,

The new administration's immigration crackdown is likely to be among the top issues during talks, but US President Donald Trump's claim that the Central American nation had ceded control of the Panama Canal to China will also loom large.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio's visit to Central America comes after President Donald Trump has repeatedly promised to take the Panama Canal back.

On Christmas Day, Trump posted on social media that the "wonderful soldiers of China" were "lovingly, but illegally, operating the Panama Canal" - a claim which was swiftly denied by officials in Panama City and Beijing.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio will visit Panama on his first trip abroad as the top U.S. diplomat after President