A senior US lawmaker called on Peru’s next government to reclaim the Chinese-controlled port of Chancay, describing the deepwater facility as a direct military threat to the western hemisphere.

Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, said during a hearing on Thursday that Washington would help Peru wrest the megaport from Chinese hands.

“The new Peruvian government, which will be elected next June, must take it back, that port, take it back, and the United States will help them,” Salazar said.

She argued the port had “dual usage” potential, meaning it could shift from commercial to military operations. Salazar said this would allow Chinese submarines, aircraft carriers and battleships to operate from Peruvian territory.

Michael Kozak, the US State Department’s senior bureau official for Western Hemisphere Affairs, who was testifying as the sole administration witness at the hearing, said Peruvian officials themselves were “alarmed” after a court ruling freed the port’s Chinese operator from domestic regulatory oversight.

In February, a lower court in Lima sided with Cosco in a constitutional protection action against Peru’s national transport infrastructure regulator Ositran.

The judge ordered the agency to refrain from exercising powers of regulation, supervision and sanction over port operations. Cosco argued the terminal was built entirely with private capital and not under a state concession contract.