Defense Secretary Ashton Carter will meet with other senior defense officials from South and Central America in Trinidad and Tobago to discuss the development of a regional policy that seeks to facilitate humanitarian and disaster relief efforts during natural disasters, The Washington Times reported Monday.
Carlo Muñoz writes a senior U.S. defense official told the publication that defense leaders will focus their discussion on the regional humanitarian policy as part of the Conference of Defense Ministers of the Americas’ biannual meeting.
Defense officials from Central and South America drafted the structure of the proposed policy in Chile and initially proposed the regional strategy for humanitarian operations during the consortium’s meeting in Uruguay, according to the report.
The news of a regionwide disaster response policy comes as the U.S. leads humanitarian operations in Haiti in response to Hurricane Matthew’s impact, the report said.
