The United States will host chiefs of defence and senior military representatives from 34 Western Hemisphere nations on 11 February for what the Pentagon has described as the inaugural Western Hemisphere Chiefs of Defence Conference.

The meeting will be chaired by Gen Dan Caine, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff. Reuters reported that military leaders from Denmark, Britain and France have also been invited, reflecting those countries’ territories in the region. The conference would take place in Washington.

In a statement quoted by Reuters, the US military said the conference is intended to build a shared understanding of common security priorities and strengthen regional cooperation. ABC News, citing a Joint Chiefs statement, described the gathering as the first time such a meeting has been convened and said it appeared focused on improving cooperation against drug trafficking and criminal organisations.

The announcement follows a US military operation in Venezuela on 3 January in which, according to US officials, President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were detained and taken to the United States to face federal narcotics-related charges. The action has been described as Washington’s most direct intervention in Latin America since the 1989 invasion of Panama.

US officials have also highlighted a maritime campaign aimed at disrupting narcotics trafficking routes. On 23 January, US Southern Command said Joint Task Force Southern Spear carried out a “lethal kinetic strike” on a vessel in the eastern Pacific that it said was operating along known narco-trafficking routes and was engaged in trafficking operations. Southern Command said two people were killed and one survived.

AP reported that the 23 January strike was the first known US military strike against an alleged drug-smuggling boat this year, and said a wider campaign launched in early September has involved 36 known strikes, with at least 117 deaths. ABC News reported more than 30 strikes since September and more than 120 deaths, and linked the February conference to efforts to improve coordination against criminal networks.

The Joint Chiefs statement said participating defence leaders will explore “united efforts” to counter criminal and terrorist organisations, as well as “external actors undermining regional security and stability”. The statement referenced the Trump administration’s National Security Strategy, released in November, which called for hemispheric cooperation against cartels and transnational criminal organisations and for keeping key assets and strategic locations out of hostile foreign control.

The focus on the Western Hemisphere also features in the administration’s newly released National Defense Strategy. The document calls on allies to assume greater responsibility for their own security while prioritising US dominance in the Western Hemisphere and highlighting issues including Greenland and the Panama Canal.

Recent US diplomatic activity has also highlighted concerns about foreign networks operating in Latin America. Reuters reported on 24 January that Washington has been pressing Bolivia to expel suspected Iranian intelligence operatives and to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Hezbollah and Hamas as terrorist organisations, as part of a broader effort to curb Iran’s influence in the region.

Regional defence diplomacy in the Americas has traditionally been channelled through the Conference of Defense Ministers of the Americas, a biennial forum created in 1995 and described by the US Defence Department as the Western Hemisphere’s premier ministerial-level defence meeting. The February gathering is being framed as a chiefs-of-defence forum, bringing together senior uniformed leaders rather than defence ministers.

Beyond the broad objectives set out in US statements, few details have been made public. Reuters did not publish a list of participants beyond its report on invitations to Denmark, Britain and France. The Pentagon and Joint Chiefs have not released an agenda, and it is unclear whether the meeting will produce a joint communiqué or establish a recurring format.

Gen Caine attended the Chiefs of Defence session of NATO’s Military Committee at NATO headquarters in Brussels on 21–22 January, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

No schedule for future meetings is public. Officials have not set one.

Image: General Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff