The United States and Peru decided on Saturday to renegotiate a 60-year-old defense cooperation agreement between the two countries as Washington seeks to deepen security ties with Latin America after a decade focused on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said updating the 1952 bilateral defence agreement with Peru would help the two countries work more closely on issues of mutual concern, from terrorism and drug trafficking to response to natural disasters.
"We have agreed to begin this process with the aim of improving and modernising the agreement," Defence Minister Pedro Cateriano told a joint news conference. Panetta said updating the accord would "improve our ability to conduct joint activities, to do training and other exchanges."
"Ultimately that will help us deal with shared security challenges in the future," the US defence secretary said.
The effort would update the Cold War-era document to take into consideration current threats facing the two sides and legal developments, including a new Peruvian constitution as well as new laws.
The decision is part of a new US defence strategy approved earlier this year that shifts strategic focus to the Asia-Pacific region while deepening training and assistance to partner nations to help them provide for their own defence.
"The principle thrust of our ... new defence strategy is aimed at reaching out and developing partnerships and alliances throughout the world and particularly in this region," Panetta said on Saturday after meeting with Peruvian President Ollanta Humala.
The Pentagon released a Western Hemisphere Defence Policy Statement on Thursday that gave additional details about how the new strategy would be implemented in Latin America.
The statement called for focusing on 21st century threats like terrorism and drug trafficking, helping partners develop and professionalize their military forces and promoting integration and interoperability.
Washington is especially worried about drug trafficking and violence in Mexico and Central America and cocaine production and rebel groups in Peru and Colombia.
But with a long and complicated history of interventions and meddling in Latin America, the United States will have to overcome deep suspicions as it moves to build deeper military ties in a region where stable democracies have taken root in recent decades.
Panetta, speaking to reporters at the start of his three-day visit to Latin America, lauded the "remarkable transformation" that has taken place in the region in recent years, saying many countries were doing increasingly more "to advance peace and security within and beyond their borders."
"Their efforts are promoting security and stability not only in the Americas but across the globe and provide the United states with a historic opportunity to renew and strengthen our defence partnerships across the region," he said.
A senior US defence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said countries like Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Peru and Chile were increasingly seen as "security exporters," promoting global peace and security by providing troops for UN peacekeeping, disaster relief and humanitarian missions. "These countries have a growing capability, and I'd say a political will, to contribute more to regional and global security," the official said, adding that the United States wanted to help them expand and improve those capabilities.
Panetta plans to pursue that goal as he meets with counterparts at a conference of American defence ministers beginning on Sunday in Uruguay, where he expects to have separate talks with officials from Uruguay, El Salvador, Canada, Brazil, Mexico and Colombia.
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