Overview
- The XVII Conference of Ministers of Defense of the Americas opened in Cusco with welcome events at Qorikancha and the Convento de La Merced and gathered more than 30 delegations.
- Peru set three strategic priorities for the forum: coordinated responses to transnational organized crime, strengthened cyberdefense, and contingency planning for climate-driven disasters such as El Niño.
- Defence Minister Amadeo Flores Carcagno emphasized Peru’s use of 'operaciones espejo'—mirror operations coordinated at land borders with Brazil, Ecuador and Colombia—to improve joint patrols and information sharing.
- Participants have begun bilateral talks and working commissions that include planned meetings with the United States and aim to produce the Declaration of Cusco and operational recommendations to boost interoperability.
- Organizers described the CMDA as the hemisphere’s main political-military forum for building trust and capacity, a role the conference in Cusco seeks to deepen by converting dialogue into concrete training, joint plans and disaster-response rules.