Security at the inauguration of the Panama Canal expansion next Sunday will be assured by more than 11,000 agents along with special measures like closing the airspace over the waterway beginning the day before, the authorities announced Tuesday.

Eleven heads of state and government, the king emeritus of Spain and delegations of some 50 countries have confirmed their attendance at the expansion inauguration, to be observed by some 20,000 onlookers.

The inaugural event will begin early Sunday, when the container ship Cosco Shipping Panama, a New Panamax freighter from China, will enter the equally new Agua Clara lock from the Atlantic to make the inaugural crossing. Panamanian authorities will greet it there along with 5,000 spectators.

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