President Donald Trump has reportedly ordered the U.S. military to develop a range of strategies for regaining control of the Panama Canal in an effort to push Chinese influence from the region.

NBC News reported that United States Southern Command is leading the initiative, which includes options from partnering with Panamanian security forces to, if necessary, forcibly reclaiming the canal.

Officials stressed that any military intervention would depend entirely on Panama’s willingness to comply with U.S. demands.

Adm. Alvin Holsey, commander of United States Southern Command, “presented draft strategies to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth this week,” the report said.

Officials stated that while a U.S. takeover of Panama wasn’t entirely off the table, it would likely only occur if an increased U.S. military presence in Panama failed to secure Trump’s objective of reclaiming the canal—one that the United States originally paid for and built but relinquished to Panama toward the end of President Jimmy Carter’s term in the late 1970s.

Trump said that the United States would be “reclaiming” the canal and efforts are already underway to do so with the goal being to “further enhance our national security.”

“It was given away by the Carter administration for $1, but that agreement has been violated very severely,” Trump said during his address to Congress last week. “We didn’t give it to China. We gave it to Panama, and we’re taking it back.”

NBC reported:

Privately, Trump has told his advisers that he sees a U.S. military presence in Panama and on the canal itself as critical to that effort, the U.S. officials said. Trump has also made it clear that he wants U.S. service members to be visible in the canal zone as a show of force.

Trump administration officials have argued that China has too large a presence near the canal. In the event of a conflict, they say, Beijing could shut down the canal to American shipping, including military ships.