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SECRETARY OF DEFENSE PETE HEGSETH: Minister Abrego, Admiral Holsey, ministers, chiefs of defense, fellow troops of the United States, good morning to everybody. It is great to see all of you again. Got a chance to spend time with many of you last night. It's a privilege.
As you know, the security of the hemisphere that we share is a top priority for President Trump and for the United States Department of Defense. The security threats that we face right now are real and they are present. But together, we are making progress to stop mass illegal migration from around the world. We're making progress to stop violent cartels and criminal enterprises that are threatening our people and brutalizing our communities. And the era of capitulating to coercion by the Communist Chinese is over.
Their growing and adversarial control of strategic land and critical infrastructure in this hemisphere cannot and will not stand. To accomplish this, our countries cannot face these shared threats alone. We have to face them together. America will confront, will deter and, if necessary, defeat these threats alongside all of you, our close and valued partners. Our mission is simple: achieve peace through strength through an America first approach. We're doing this by restoring the warrior ethos, rebuilding our military and reestablishing deterrence. And we're doing all of this right here in Central and South America.
But as we state time and time again, America first does not mean America alone. Rather, putting America first means making our alliances and our partnerships make sense for the American people and for our friends. As President Trump often says, it's common sense.
To put America first, we will put the Americas first. We will do this by confronting shared threats across this hemisphere, serious threats that require a serious response. First, the United States will do whatever is necessary to achieve 100 percent operational control of our borders. Simply put, border security is national security, something President Trump has and continues to deliver on.
Border security in every country in this region is a shared challenge and must be a shared priority for all of us. And I had a chance to spend time, as I mentioned, with multiple ministers last night, who are just as committed to their own sovereignty and defense of their borders and assisting us in defense of ours.
Second, the Trump administration understands that transnational cartels and gangs enable and profit from chaos. They terrorize our people and our communities. So, President Trump has designated these groups as terrorist organizations, and we are unflinchingly treating them as such.
We also know that these same terrorist gangs and cartels, they profit from terrorizing your people and your communities. Cartels that ravage your lands, they control large swaths of territory in some of our countries, and their existence threatens yours and our sovereignty. Together, each for our own country, we will target and we will destroy those networks. And thank you again to every leader in this region cooperating with the United States to stop mass illegal migration and to accept returning migrants to your countries.
And third, as we look beyond our hemisphere, we have to recognize the threat that the China poses to our countries, to our people and to peace in this region. China-based companies are capturing land, critical infrastructure in strategic sectors such as energy and telecommunications.
China's military has too large of a presence in the Western Hemisphere. They operate military facilities and ground stations that extend their reach into space. They exploit national – natural resources and land to fuel China's global military ambitions. China's factory fishing fleets are stealing food from our nations and from our people.
Make no mistake. Beijing is investing and operating in this region for military advantage and unfair economic gain. We do not seek war with China, and war with China is certainly not inevitable. We do not seek it in any form. But together, we must prevent war by robustly and vigorously deterring China's threats in this hemisphere.
President Trump has made it clear that the Panama Canal and the canal areas cannot and will not be controlled by China. We are working closely with our partners in Panama to secure the canal and advance our mutual [Audio gap] directing the United States Naval Ship Comfort, it's a hospital ship, to deploy to Panama and to several countries in the region later this year.
We're also expanding training – military training, increased military education and exchanges, and conducting more robust joint exercises. We're going to increase cooperation to deter threats, to seize opportunities to bolster our shared defense.
That's what CENTSEC Panama 2025 is all about, friends standing shoulder to shoulder with friends. That's the reason I'm proud to be the first secretary of defense to attend CENTSEC, the first to be in Panama in over two decades. President Trump has made our hemisphere, our friends, our borders a high priority in his administration, and it will continue to be so.
Like all of you, the United States [Audio gap] of secure, prosperous and sovereign. This is not globalism or interventionism. Instead, this is a golden age of shared national interests. We want this to be a golden age for our countries and for this hemisphere.
We want, in short, to also make the Americas great again. Together, we will secure a prosperous and peaceful region for our people and a promising future for our kids and for our grandkids.
Thank you, and God bless all the countries assembled here. Thank you.
