National Interest: Trump follows in Reagan’s footsteps by seizing control of the Panama Canal
A report in the National Interest magazine praised President-elect Donald Trump’s statements about imposing control over the Panama Canal, considering them a clear indication of Trump’s deep and insightful understanding of American national security requirements.
The CEO of the American Global Strategies consulting firm, Alexander Gray, wrote that Trump’s approach to the canal is similar to that of former President Ronald Reagan, who opposed the handover of the canal in 1978 before he took office.
Reagan said at the time that the canal should remain under American supervision because of its strategic importance.
Reagan was adamant that handing over the canal would expose it to foreign interference, which would weaken the United States’ global standing, and Trump agrees with him, believing that handing over the canal would send a negative message to the country’s adversaries such as Iran, Russia and North Korea.
The canal is essential for quickly transporting American naval power between the East and West Coasts and to the Pacific Ocean, and the report stressed that this strategic necessity is what prompted President Theodore Roosevelt to build the canal in the early twentieth century.
Gray believes that the canal’s military purposes alone justify the need for continued American control over it and ensuring unhindered access to it during crises.
The report pointed to China’s activities in the canal as evidence of its strategic necessity, as a Chinese company took advantage of the United States’ preoccupation with its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and extended its influence in the vital passage.
According to the report, this included taking control of two of Panama’s five main ports, building a deep-sea port, a cruise terminal, and a fourth bridge across the canal.
In Gray’s opinion, it’s extremely naive to assume that Beijing’s interest in Panama and the canal has nothing to do with the strategic importance of the waterway to American national security.
