Secretary of State Marco Rubio is traveling to Panama late next week in his first official diplomatic trip late, amid heightened tensions over President Trump’s threats to retake the Panama

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

China's expanding footprint in Latin America is expected to be high on the agenda when US Secretary of State Marco Rubio visits Panama next week on his first overseas trip since taking office, according to observers.

Marco Rubio will pay his first trip as US secretary of state to Central American nations including Panama, where President Donald Trump has threatened to seize the Panama Canal, a spokeswoman said Thursday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will visit Panama during his first overseas trip in the post, a source told Reuters on Thursday, as President Donald Trump makes a push for the United States to take back the Panama Canal that has angered the Central American country.

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.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio will travel to Central America for his first trip as the top US diplomat. Rubio is expected to depart late next week for Panama, Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said.

The new US secretary of state is departing from recent precedent by not making Asia his first overseas destination.