Your Excellency, Melitón Arrocha, Vice Foreign Minister of the Republic of Panama,
Senor, Juan Daniel Aleman Gurdian, Secretary General of SICA,
Distinguished representatives of the governments of Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama and Belize.
Distinguished experts,
Ladies and Gentlemen:

Muy buenos días a todos y todas:

En primer lugar deseo agradecer a todas las delegaciones del SICA por su presencia hoy aquí, en esta primera reunión conjunta del SICA y la OEA, para tratar un tema importante y de interés para todos los Estados Miembros de esta región –la aplicación de la Resolución 1540 de las Naciones Unidas.

Before initiating my remarks, I want to congratulate the government of Panama on its excellent leadership of the Presidency Pro-tempore of SICA. I am certain that SICA has benefitted from Panama’s commitment to regional integration in the Central American region.

Vice Minister Arrocha, may I take this opportunity to thank through you the Government of Panama and also the other Central American nations, for their unanimous support to my re-election as Assistant Secretary General of the Organization of American States. I pledge the fullest support to the sub-region in fostering peace, stability and prosperity.

I also want to extend my appreciation to the government of Panama for hosting this very important meeting.

Lo siento que ahora no voy a continuar en Español. Mi primer idioma es Holandes, pero yo creo que es mejor que hable en Ingles.

I want to take this opportunity today to share with you why I personally and my office are supporting the implementation of Resolution 1540, and why we are mobilizing resources within and outside the Organization and seek political support and collaboration from sub-regional organizations in this regard.

The answer is simple: we all, individually and collectively, have the moral obligation to create a better and safer world, one in which our children, family and friends can safely travel, work and relax.

We all want peace, we all want security and we all want our children to grow up and live in a safe and prosperous environment. This will not happen on its own. We all will have to make choices and sometimes bold decisions to create this peaceful world. So committing ourselves to this just cause is not enough, acting upon this commitment and goal is more important, a commitment which in my view should result in having the Western Hemisphere as a zone of peace, free of weapons of mass destruction.

Before we can count on the political will and action, we need to inform and sensitize our executive and legislative authorities about the security threats, as well as about the existing opportunities to improve the security environments in our countries with such assistance as provided for in Resolution 1540.

That is why I travelled to Panama City, a city which has hosted many OAS meetings, despite my hectic schedule. Normally I do not travel in the month of May, as I also have the responsibility for the preparations for the General Assembly of the OAS, which will be held in early June in Lima, Peru.

I do regret that I could not be present in person at the two previous conferences on Resolution 1540 in the Dominican Republic and Jamaica, but I have seen the results of those meetings and I am pleased that we are making progress in the Caribbean.

I believe that this conference, given the particular security challenges of our time, is of specific importance to the Central American region. I have committed myself to addressing the problems of Central America through my work at the OAS. I am pleased that Secretary General Juan Daniel Aleman of SICA and his team, especially Dr. Eric Vilchez, are joining us today, as we both have embarked on a road of strengthening the relations between the sub-regions and with our hemispheric body-the OAS.

This conference, in my view, is also important and very timely because parts of your substantive discussions will find its way into the debate of the upcoming OAS General Assembly in Lima, where the central topic selected by the host country is “Security and Cooperation”. I therefore urge you as high level participants to inform your Ministers of Foreign Affairs about the conclusions of this conference immediately upon your return.

I take the opportunity to make the same appeal to the CARICOM Special Representative on this matter, Mr. O’Neill Hamilton to brief CARICOM Foreign Ministers to sensitize them on this matter in preparation for the General Assembly.

The OAS General Assembly adopted Resolutions 2107 and 2358 in which member states were urged to fulfill their obligations under United Nations Resolution 1540 to enforce without delay effective measures to establish domestic controls to prevent the proliferation of nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons and their means of delivery.

Currently another resolution in support of 1540 is being negotiated in the Committee on Hemispheric Security. This time, member states have been presented with a proposal from Mexico, urging the General Secretariat to establish a focal point for enhancing cooperation between the 1540 Committee and the OAS. We welcome this recommendation and look forward to the support of member states for this initiative.

I am, therefore, pleased to note that Ambassador Claude Heller´s representative of the 1540 Committee has joined us today. I had the privilege of serving as Permanent Representative for my country Suriname at the OAS at the same time as Ambassador Claude Heller served his country Mexico. I would like to pledge to Ambassador Heller and to the United Nations, the OAS support to the work of the Committee and to the implementation of Resolution 1540.

For important causes such as this one, we always need champions, and I believe Resolution 1540 has two important champions in the Stanley Foundation and Stimson Center, with whom we have had the pleasure of working closely over the past four years. I want to specifically mention the great work done by Mr. Brian Finlay, who I see on a frequent basis in my Office meeting with my advisor Yadira Soto, that sometimes I believe that he is part of my team.

Security challenges affect us all. It is clear that no region in the world is immune from the threats of terrorism, transnational crime, drug trafficking, and organized criminal activity, and it is also clear to me that no country on their own can effectively solve these problems. We need to work together in a multilateral framework to stay ahead of the problems.

Within the context of the OAS, we come have to come realize, you cannot have development without security, and you cannot be secure without sustainable development.

Central America has witnessed first hand how some of these threats are posing serious social and economic challenges for their governments and citizens.

In our Hemisphere, however, the proliferation of these weapons may often seem a distant threat and of lower priority. Many of our governments are far too overwhelmed with the daily struggles against the diffusion of small arms, drug trafficking, or criminal gangs to be dedicating ourselves as wholly as we would like to defending our countries against committed proliferators.

Likewise, I firmly believe, that this hemisphere’s security challenges cannot be met without the cooperation and political will of all affected countries. We must to work collaboratively toward new and innovative approaches that can successfully address the myriad of security problems facing our countries today.

One such example of a multilateral approach was the recently held global nuclear summit in Washington D.C. The Summit provided an opportunity for countries around the world to show their commitment to nuclear non-proliferation and to the removal of nuclear threats. Most importantly, it clearly illustrated the importance making nuclear security a higher global priority which cannot be met without bilateral, subregional and multilateral action.

Few would doubt that there is any greater threat to global security than a terrorist attack with weapons of mass destruction. To many, preventing this possibility is the greatest challenge of our time.

Member States of the OAS have understood fully the gravity that terrorism—especially terrorism involving weapons of mass destruction--poses to peaceful and stable countries. Our approach calls for a “whole of government” approach to problem solving. Many of the tools necessary to prevent the illicit trade of narcotics are the same capacities required to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The prosecution of terrorists cannot occur without a fully functioning judiciary and police capacity. And without a functioning public health infrastructure, the bio-safety and bio-security demands of 1540 cannot be met.

Recognizing the importance of UNSCR 1540, the OAS, since 2006, has been working with CARICOM, the Stimson Center, the UN, and, now, with SICA to engage member states in a unique and ambitious policy initiative entitled, “The Next 100 Initiative.”

The objective of this initiative is to provide assistance to member governments in need of new sources of technical and financial assistance to address economic, public health, and other development challenges while working simultaneously on an array of citizen security threats from drug trafficking to the small arms trade, and of course, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

This innovative approach to the implementation of UNSCR 1540 drew my attention because, I believe, it is a pragmatic embodiment of the OAS concept of multidimensional, multilateral, and cooperative security.

The Next 100 initiative is unique in that it seeks to develop and pilot a new and innovative model at the subregional level that brings together both security and development needs under one umbrella.

The Project seeks to maximize the benefits of full compliance with UN Resolution 1540 by assisting governments with their “soft security needs”. Only by leveraging the appropriate financial assistance across the security- development divide, can we effectively address the multiplicity of concerns facing our region.

I strongly believe that in order for this model to continue to be successful, the international community must remain committed to working on a subregional basis. We must also work from the bottom up to deal with the most local level problems of development and citizen security and tie these elements into the global issue of proliferation.

At the international level, we must strengthen our collaboration with the UN 1540 Committee. Regional organizations can serve as conduits for their members to approach their challenges collectively, therefore we must aim at strengthening regional cooperation within the Western Hemisphere as well as with the United Nations.

Prioritizing this kind of regional cooperation is what “The Next 100 Initiative” aims to accomplish. It provides an opportunity for collaboration between national governments, the United Nations, key donors and international NGO’s like the Stimson Center and the Stanley Foundation in the implementation of UN 1540.

Let me conclude my far too long opening remarks with the following three statements:

• It is imperative for all of us to recognize the nexus between security and development as a critical element in assuring democratic governance and sustainability. It is not only evident that security is a necessary precondition for development, but is a prerequisite for poverty eradication.

• To be able to effectively address the security challenges we will need to work together, first at national level between the different relevant authorities, then at sub-regional level between the different countries, followed by creating a platform for consensus and action at hemispheric level and ultimately with commitments and agreements at global level. The tricky part in this approach is that all of this needs to happen at the same time, simply because we do not have the time to lose.

• I want to assure you in the sub-region and at the United Nations of the fullest support of the Organization in promoting compliance with Resolution 1540, because ultimately what we all want is to realize a better life for our people in peace and prosperity.

Les deseo suerte en sus deliberaciones y nos comprometemos a continuar trabajando en estrecha colaboración con todos los países de la sub-región del SICA para que esta Resolución se pueda traducir de una responsabilidad de reportar, a un beneficio tangible y duradero para cada uno de sus gobiernos.

Muchas gracias.