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,

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,

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

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 will likely travel to Central America in the first week of February, a source familiar with the planning said.

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.

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

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

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is set to visit Panama — the country whose canal President Donald Trump has suggested he’d seize — as early as next week, according to three U.S. officials briefed on the plan.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Marco Rubio will make his first official trip abroad next week to Central America, including a stop in Panama, which President Donald Trump has riled with talk of trying to reclaim the Panama Canal.

Mr Rubio will visit Panama, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic. Read more at straitstimes.com.

Trump has accused Panama of reneging on commitments for the operation of the canal made to then-President Jimmy Carter when the U.S. ceded control of the vital waterway. Trump has often complained ...