Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth took a victory lap over two recent “historic” agreements on the Panama Canal, marking major steps in the United States’s bid to retake the channel and protect it from China.

Hegseth, who met with Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino last week, detailed how one of the agreements the Trump administration was able to reach was with the Panama Canal authority, which allows U.S. ships to travel for free through the channel. The other agreement was a “memorandum of understanding” that established the U.S.’s growing presence near the canal by working with Panama in securing the canal from China’s control, which will include the reopening of Fort Sherman in Panama.

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“If we can’t use that waterway in a key contingency, then China has an advantage,” Hegseth stated on Fox News’s Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo. “Other presidents have allowed us – we’ve been sort of asleep at the wheel, President Trump has said ‘we need to be serious about our own backyard,’ that includes a place like the Panama Canal.”

Hegseth also expressed gratitude toward Mulino, a “pro-Trump” leader, for his willingness to aid the U.S. in combating China and “sticking his neck out” in doing so. He added that “you could feel” China’s presence and desire to control the Panama Canal, citing how China is “building a tunnel” under the canal and stressing the need to remove the “insidious” influence the country has.

The defense secretary continued by stating that the two agreements reached by the U.S. marked “a big effort” between the U.S. Department of Defense and Panama’s leader that allowed the two countries to come together and rid the Canal of China’s influence. He also argued that China was frustrated over the agreements due to how the U.S. is returning to “peace through strength.” 

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The Chinese government has pushed back against Hegseth’s accusations of China’s influence on the Panama Canal, with Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian asking the U.S. to “stop spreading rumors and making trouble” on the matter. 

Trump has been vocal about the U.S. having a more involved role in the Panama Canal since returning to the White House, warning in February that “something very powerful is going to happen” if the U.S. does not take action.