President Donald Trump made his stance clear on the Panama and Suez canals: We should travel through them for free.
"American ships, both military and commercial, should be allowed to travel, free of charge, through the Panama and Suez Canals!" Trump wrote in a Truth Social post Saturday.
"Those canals would not exist without the United States of America. I’ve asked Secretary of State Marco Rubio to immediately take care of, and memorialize, this situation!"
The addition of the Suez Canal to Trump's agenda is a new one, while Trump has said repeatedly that he wants to "take back" the Panama Canal. Before taking office in January, he told reporters he would not rule out using economic or military force to regain control over the canal, which he has feared China is beginning to dominate in its designs to spread its influence in the Americas.
The Suez Canal is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez, dividing Africa and Asia. Freedom of navigation has been an ongoing battle in the Middle East, particularly amid Israel's wars on Hamas, Hezbollah, and Yemen's Houthi rebels, who have engaged in pirate activity in the Gulf of Aden to the Red Sea.
The Panama Canal crosses the narrowest part of the isthmus between North and South America, allowing ships to move more quickly between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. It carries about 40% of U.S. container traffic each year.
The U.S. completed construction of the canal in the early 20th century but gave control of the strategically important waterway to Panama in 1999.
Information from Reuters was used to compile this report.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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