Washington, DC – US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis hosted the third North American Defense Ministerial meeting on May 22 with Canadian Defense Minster of Harjit Sajjan, Mexican Defense Secretary Gen. Salvador Cienfuegos, and Adm. Vidal Soberón, secretary of the Mexican navy.
“The secretaries and minister concurred on the importance of the North American community and continued cooperation and friendship as an example to the international community, to address the common and borderless challenges facing our region, and to advance the security of our people,” chief Pentagon spokesperson Dana W. White said in a statement.
They also recognized that North America, as a community, has global responsibilities and that complex challenges are best addressed by cooperative responses, she added.
Framework of NADM
The NADM provides a potential framework for cooperation and coordination among North America’s defense institutions to build a common understanding of threats and approaches to address these threats and to identify and implement initiatives to promote trilateral defense cooperation, White said.
The North American defense leaders decided to strengthen US, Canadian, and Mexican defense cooperation, advance the capability of the North American community to address mutually identified hemispheric defense challenges cooperatively, expand trilateral support and cooperation for multilateral regional defense institutions, and exchange lessons learned and best practices for peacekeeping activities, White said.
Bilaterals
The NADM is the defense component of North American regional cooperation efforts, White said. White also noted that Mattis also hosted bilateral meetings with the two nations’ defense leaders.
Earlier in February, Mattis had also hosted Canada’s Minister Sajjan at the Pentagon and it was Mattis’ first time hosting a defense counterpart as secretary of defense.
Tejinder Singh, Editor, India America Today & White House Correspondent