14 January 2003
Miami Will Host Western Hemisphere Security Conference
(U.S. envoy to OAS stresses importance of Feb. 3-4 event) (290)
Washington -- Methods to enhance regional trust and security in the
Western Hemisphere will be the subject of a February 3-4 conference in
Miami, Florida, which is being held under the auspices of the United
States and the Organization of American States (OAS).
The OAS said in a January 7 statement that top security experts from
the hemisphere will participate in the conference, which stems from a
2001 Summit of the Americas mandate. The conference will provide an
added opportunity to help countries in the region find ways of
overcoming mutual distrust, the OAS said. Lincoln Bloomfield, the
State Department's assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of
Political-Military Affairs, will head the U.S. delegation at the
conference.
OAS Assistant Secretary General Luigi Einaudi said that confidence-
and security-building measures "contribute to safeguarding peace and
consolidating democracy in the Americas." Elaborating on that theme,
Einaudi pointed to the OAS' recent successes in helping to resolve
disputes between Belize and Guatemala, and Honduras and Nicaragua.
Roger Noriega, U.S. Permanent Representative to the OAS, said that
"security is absolutely essential to our well-being." He said the
Miami conference represents a "historic opportunity for all of us to
find better ways of cooperating to advance our mutual security, which
is so essential not only to our political relations, but to our
ability to build an economic community that benefits all of our people
and spreads opportunity to persons of all walks of life."
The last OAS meeting of experts on confidence- and security-building
measures was held in 1998 in San Salvador.
(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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