45th Annual Washington Conference: Secretary of State John Kerry on New Era of Hemispheric Cooperation

Washington, D.C. April 23, 2015– U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry renewed the administration’s commitment to a new kind of relationship with Latin America on Tuesday that “will contribute significantly to our common agenda for the hemisphere, which includes the strengthening of democracy and the respect for human rights.”

Speaking at the 45th Annual Washington Conference on the Americas, an event co-organized by the Council of the Americas and the U.S. Department of State, Secretary Kerry acknowledged the region’s economic and political transformation over the past two decades and described his vision for the way ahead.

“This is a region that has successfully and peacefully moved from authoritarian to democratic governments, from closed to open economies, from isolation to integration,” he said. “And the challenge now is to complete that set of transitions, to sustain what we achieve, and make our democratic institutions resilient against threats.”

The prospects for the region, said Secretary Kerry, will depend on having a common and inclusive agenda, which will further U.S. interests and values while promoting greater opportunity and freedom.

On Monday, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Roberta Jacobson kicked off the conference with remarks on President Obama’s new direction on Cuba.

At the conference, which in its 45th edition focused on integration and innovation, U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz also discussed how the President’s All-of-the-Above Energy Strategy is fostering America’s low-carbon economy while combating climate change.

During a moderated interview, Secretary Moniz emphasized the importance of energy security and the need to build and maintain critical infrastructure to meet the opportunities of the 21st century.  Finally, Secretary Moniz discussed how the U.S. is leading efforts to address climate change driven by the increasing development and deployment of renewable energy technologies, stating that “we are in the revolution, driven by cost-reduction of technologies.”

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx addressed the audience of private sector members and public officials from across the region, by speaking on the challenges and opportunities in infrastructure and transportation. Innovation, Secretary Foxx said, is fundamental to eliminate the physical and legal bottlenecks that negatively impact trade.

“America is not facing its transportation challenges alone,” said Secretary Foxx. “We are not the only nation in this Hemisphere to witness a growing population or a massive urban migration; our transportation networks aren’t the only ones being battered by bigger storms. We face these challenges with the rest of the world, and we can solve them faster and smarter by working together.”

Participating in a panel with top private sector leaders, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Commerce Bruce Andrews called the attention to what he described as the "massive inequality in terms of connectedness in Latin America. “We’ve always traditionally just thought of infrastructure as roads, telephones, etc. but you also need the internet connectivity,” Deputy Secretary Andrews said. “The more people we can connect, the more people we can include in the global economy.”

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, interviewed by Americas Society/Council of the Americas President and CEO Susan Segal, spoke at length about his recent trips to Canada and Mexico, saying: “We need to make these neighbors of ours a first thought, not an afterthought.”

“We’re in the midst of an energy renaissance that we need to take advantage of, and we need to partner with Mexico and Canada, not only for internal benefit, but for our geopolitical standing in the world,” Governor Christie said. “We have neighbors who share our economic system, political system, many of the same cultural values, sense of respect our sense of sovereignty. These are things that we take for granted.”

President of Honduras Juan Orlando Hernández delivered closing remarks at the Conference, sharing an optimistic view for the future of the Central American country and reinforcing his administration´s commitment to sustained economic growth and citizen security.

Other speakers at the 45th Washington Conference on the Americas included:

President of the Inter-American Development Bank, Luis Alberto Moreno; President of George Mason University, Angel Cabrera; Chief Executive Officer of Telefónica Hispanoamérica, Eduardo Caride; Chief Executive Officer of Medtronic, Omar Ishrak; Chairman of Mosbacher Energy, Robert Mosbacher Jr.; Chairman of Americas Society/Council of the Americas, John Negroponte; and Vice President of Americas Society/Council of the Americas, Eric Farnsworth.

For more information, please contact Adriana La Rotta at alarotta@as-coa.org or (212) 277-8384 or Kariela Almonte at kalmonte@as-coa.org or (212) 277-8333.

To get conference materials, summaries, multimedia, and more, visit: www.as-coa.org/wc2015