Foreign Minister Manuel Tovar-Rivera, representing Costa Rica, participated Tuesday in the Shield of the Americas summit, an anti-cartel coalition led by U.S. President Donald Trump, held at United Nations headquarters in New York City, in the U.S. State of New York.

U.S. President Trump's team included senior members of his administration, Secretary of State Marco Rubio; Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent; U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer; White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller; and Kristi Noem, special envoy to the Shield of the Americas for the U.S. Department of State.

The summit also brought together the presidents of Argentina, Javier Milei; Bolivia, Rodrigo Paz; Chile, José Antonio Kast; Ecuador, Daniel Noboa; Guyana, Irfaan Ali; Honduras, Nasry Asfura; Paraguay, Santiago Peña; Peru, Keiko Fujimori; the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader; and Trinidad and Tobago, Kamla Persad-Bissessar.

Vice President José Manuel Restrepo represented Colombia. The foreign ministers of El Salvador and Panama also participated.

Following the discussions, Tovar-Rivera signed the Joint Statement on Defending Hemispheric Sovereignty agreement,  alongside representatives of the other member countries.

According to the U.S. Department of State, the Shield of the Americas members jointly declared their intention to strengthen the resilience of the Western Hemisphere through the coalition's three pillars: economic cooperation, security and multilateral coordination.

The participating countries agreed to undertake a series of actions aimed at strengthening their economies, democratic governance and security, authorities noted.


Under the economic pillar, the countries agreed to defend their economies by enhancing economic cooperation, exploring investment-screening mechanisms, safeguarding critical mineral supply chains through diversified and reliable sourcing, and promoting trusted-supplier regulations for digital infrastructure on a nondiscriminatory basis.

Regarding democratic governance, the members agreed to defend democratic institutions against armed narco-terrorist networks. Their proposed actions include coordinating sanctions, designations and financial measures against terrorists and criminals; expanding civilian law enforcement; and providing humanitarian and messaging assistance to defend the popular will.

Under the multilateral coordination pillar, the countries agreed to defend and promote mutual respect for national sovereignty and each nation's right to self-determination through multilateral forums.

These efforts are intended to coordinate and advance shared objectives and proposals, including catalyzing international enforcement actions against transnational organized criminal groups and pursuing necessary reforms to multilateral organizations.

The joint agreement also seeks to recognize transnational narco-terrorist organizations and strengthen efforts to combat them.

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