The Republic of Panama is located on the narrowest and lowest part of the Isthmus and works as a land bridge between North and South America. The capital, Panama City, is located in the intersection of the Panama Canal in the Gulf of Panama. The Panama Canal serves as the link between the two largest oceans on the planet, the Atlantic and the Pacific. This waterway is a potential bottleneck in the free flow of sea traffic, its strategic significance is determined by its importance to the superpowers, international “hot spots”, trade routes, and ocean traffic patterns. The country extends 772 km from east to west and 185 from north to south. Panama borders with Costa Rica to the North and Colombia to the South, two countries that have been unmistakably
