The United States has been leveraging the power of partnership to build a Western Hemisphere that can lead the world and overcome any challenge, said National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan at the Washington Conference on the Americas
The United States has pursued partnerships as a key strategy to advance prosperity for all, said Mr. Sullivan:
“For more than two decades, we have built free trade agreements as part of the foundation of our economic policy through the hemisphere. And they’ve made important progress even as those free trade agreements have taken on important new components, including relative to labor and the environment.”
But they were not a complete answer, said Mr. Sullivan, because the prevailing assumption that the gains achieved through trade agreements would be shared by all of society didn’t entirely bear out. “Those gains didn’t reach a lot of working people, across many of our countries,” he noted.
We need an economic agenda that builds on the work that has been done in the past but also acknowledges the new challenges ahead, said Mr. Sullivan:
“It means building resilient supply chains, as we learned during the COVID-19 pandemic. It means mobilizing public and private investment for a just energy transition. It means promoting and protecting workers’ rights. It means really getting serious about tackling corruption, which is a cancer that eats away at economic progress and prosperity in too many countries.”
The U.S. is also teaming up with countries across the region in order to address transnational threats. Chief among them is synthetic opioids, including fentanyl.
The United States remains committed to defending democracy across the Americas, including in nations like Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, said Mr. Sullivan.
“We’ve worked non-stop with partners across the region, and from around the world, to hold the Maduro regime accountable for the commitments it made under the Barbados Agreement, including to hold competitive and inclusive elections this year,” he said.
Mr. Sullivan stressed the need “to work together to ensure that democracy delivers for our people. That it protects them. That it makes their lives better in meaningful, concrete ways.”
If we work together, there is no reason why the Americas should not be the most prosperous, democratic, secure region in the world.
