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President Donald Trump has invited Latin American leaders to a summit in Florida on March 7, according to a White House official who confirmed plans Thursday while requesting anonymity because the meeting has not yet been formally announced. The planned gathering will occur as Trump’s administration spotlights what it describes as concerning Chinese influence across the Western Hemisphere and as Trump is expected to travel to Beijing for talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The summit’s timing places it just weeks before Trump is expected to hold those China talks in Beijing. The White House official said the March 7 plans were being set as the administration prepared to elevate its regional diplomacy at the same time it pursues its China agenda.
Separately, the administration has been moving on Western Hemisphere security cooperation. Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, convened a gathering in Washington this week that included defense chiefs and senior military officials from 34 Western Hemisphere countries, according to the report.
At that Washington meeting, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told the officials that the Trump administration aimed to “achieve a permanent peace in this hemisphere.” The comments were delivered during an address to the defense chiefs gathered from across the region.
The Florida summit and wider regional messaging come after the Trump administration launched what it described as a military operation targeting Venezuela’s leadership. The report says the U.S. administration last month launched an operation to oust President Nicolás Maduro and transfer him and his wife to New York to face federal drug conspiracy charges.
In explaining the Venezuela move and subsequent efforts related to the country’s oil sector, the Trump administration has pointed to concerns about Chinese and Russian influence in Venezuela. The report says Trump told oil industry officials at a White House meeting “One thing I think everyone has to know is that if we didn’t do this, China or Russia would have done it,” just days after Maduro’s capture.
The report also notes that China buys Venezuelan oil, while adding that those purchases account for a small fraction of Beijing’s overall seaborne imports. It then describes how the administration has pushed a broader line about sovereignty risks tied to China’s economic and infrastructure presence beyond Venezuela.
Beyond energy, the report says Trump has threatened to seize control of the Panama Canal, asserting that the waterway was “vital to our country” and claiming falsely that “it’s being operated by China.” The article lays out that the canal was built by the United States in the early 20th century, operated by the U.S. for decades, and then transferred to Panama in 1999; it also says Panama’s high court annulled Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison’s contract to operate two ports on the canal.
In Peru, the report says the administration expressed concern about China’s role in critical infrastructure after a Peruvian court ruling restricted a local regulator’s oversight of the Chinese-built deepwater port Chancay. It cites a social media statement from the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs that said the department was concerned that “Peru could be powerless to oversee Chancay, one of its largest ports, which is under the jurisdiction of predatory Chinese owners,” and added: “We support Peru’s sovereign right to oversee critical infrastructure in its own territory. Let this be a cautionary tale for the region and the world: cheap Chinese money costs sovereignty.”