Marco Rubio tells the leader of Panama that “ immediate changes ” are necessary

The Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, seemed to degenerate the confrontation of the Trump administration on Sunday on Sunday, telling his leader that President Trump had determined that Chinese “influence and control” on the Panama canal threatens the Navigable and demanding “immediate changes”, according to the Department State.

The president of Panama, José Raúl Mulino, provided a different account of the discussion, affirming after the meeting that he did not think that Mr. Rubio had threatened that Mr. Trump could move to recover the shipping route built by the United States. He said he saw little risk of such intervention.

But President Trump, addressing Journalists of Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Sunday, said that “we are going to take it back, or something very powerful will happen.”

The summary by the Reunion State Department in Panama City, the first of Mr. Rubio with a foreign leader since he became secretary of state, took a tone that was sometimes aggressive. He said Rubio told his host that Trump had taken a “preliminary determination” that the Chinese government was exercising control of the channel.

“Secretary Rubio clearly indicated that this status quo was unacceptable and that in the absence of immediate changes, it would force the United States to take necessary measures to protect its rights under the treaty,” said the carrier Word of the State Department, Tammy Bruce, in the summary.

Ms. Bruce did not specify what these measures might be. Asked last month if he excluded the military force behind his threats to recover the canal, which the United States controlled for almost a century, Trump refused to do so.