Peruvian Army troops. Motto: Hasta quemar el último cartucho (“Until the last cartridge has been fired”).
“Thank you, Minister Cateriano, for hosting this gathering and welcoming us to Arequipa. Since this forum was established more than two decades ago, it has served as an important venue for discussing major challenges facing our region, and finding ways to strengthen our defense cooperation.
I am here today to underscore the United States’ commitment to partnering with the Americas…to maintain peace and stability in our hemisphere, and to help build global security.
As you all know, in the Western Hemisphere today, the most pressing security challenges – from organized crime to ungoverned spaces – do not respect national borders. Nor do their consequences, such as the migration of unaccompanied minors.
No nation can address these challenges alone. We must work together to confront them.
That is why it is welcome news that many nations in the region are becoming exporters of security – working with neighboring countries to provide training, build capacity, and address urgent security needs.
Colombia, for example, has trained thousands of security forces from over a dozen countries in the region, building on the success of their National Training Center in Tolemaida, which I visited last week.
Chile, where I was yesterday, has included Salvadoran, Ecuadorian, and Honduran units into its peacekeeping battalion that is supporting the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti.
And two months ago, the United States was proud to join with Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Paraguay for the Partnership of the Americas exercise, which helps build our combined capability to execute peace support operations, humanitarian assistance, and disaster relief missions.
The United States remains committed to partnerships that strengthen the integrity and effectiveness of defense institutions, and enhance our ability to operate together.
Our hemisphere’s multilateral defense institutions, and the Inter-American Defense System, are critical for this kind of collaboration. I realize that not all countries are completely satisfied with this system, but the United States encourages your active engagement. We need a more integrated, not a more fractured, architecture of cooperation…because the challenges we face span our entire hemisphere. ”
Source: DoD http://www.defense.gov/Speeches/Speech.aspx?SpeechID=1893