By Daphne Psaledakis and Humeyra Pamuk
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will visit Panama and four other countries in Central America and the Caribbean starting late next week during his first overseas trip as Washington's top diplomat, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said on Thursday.
The trip, which Bruce said will also include stops in Guatemala, El Salvador, Dominican Republic and Costa Rica, comes as President Donald Trump has put immigration at the center of his foreign policy agenda and made a push for the United States to take back the Panama Canal in comments that have angered the Central American country.
"There is a reason why this is the first trip. It signals how serious he takes it, what it's going to mean when it comes to his programs, and how it relates to his commitment to this nation, to address those issues that matter to him, and certainly the issues of the Trump agenda," Bruce told reporters.
"It's about making sure that if we're going to be safe and prosperous and in good shape, we ... have to have an interest in our neighbors - and in today's world, it's certainly it's South and Central America."
Trump has also accused Panama of breaking the promises it made for the final transfer of the strategic waterway in 1999 and of ceding its operation to China - accusations that the Panamanian government has strongly denied.
"We didn't give it to China. We gave it to Panama, and we're taking it back," Trump said in his inaugural address on Monday.
President Jose Raul Mulino responded on X on Monday that the Panama Canal "is and will continue to be Panamanian." Panama has also alerted the United Nations to Trump's remarks, in a letter seen by Reuters on Tuesday.
The canal is an 82-km (51-mile) waterway that connects the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans through Panama and is critical to U.S. imports of autos and commercial goods by container ships from Asia, and for U.S. exports of commodities, including liquefied natural gas.
The United States largely built the canal and administered territory surrounding it for decades. The U.S. and Panama signed accords in 1977 that paved the way for the canal's return to full Panamanian control, and Washington handed it over in 1999 after a period of joint administration.
During his campaign, Trump vowed to crack down on illegal immigration to the United States and has hit the ground running on the issue.
He signed executive orders declaring illegal immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border a national emergency, designating criminal cartels as terrorist organizations, and targeting automatic citizenship for U.S.-born children of immigrants in the country illegally.
Immigration is also set to be a main focus of the trip by Rubio, the first Latino U.S. secretary of state.