The outgoing chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said on ABC's "This Week" that President-elect Donald Trump's threats to seize the Panama Canal could drive allies of the United States toward Russia and China.

Trump has criticized Panama over increasing fees, warning that if it doesn't change, he will demand the canal's return to the U.S.

The U.S. acquired the rights to build and operate the canal in the early 20th century, but at the time, Panama was in the process of seceding from Colombia, whose senate was refusing to ratify a treaty that would allow the canal to be built, according to the State Department's Office of the Historian .