Ninth Summit of the Americas is set for June in L.A.

Christopher Dodd

The Ninth Summit of the Americas will be convened in Los Angeles in June, under the theme “Building a Sustainable, Resilient, and Equitable Future” with the region’s governments, civil society, and private sectors. Across the hemisphere, people, institutions and governments have shared priorities and concerns which include the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the weaknesses that were exposed in health, economic, educational, and social systems. They also include threats to democracy, the climate crisis, and a lack of equitable access to economic, social, and political opportunities. The Summit of the Americas is being organized by the administration of United States President Joe Biden.

Christopher Dodd, Special Advisor

“He really wants this summit to be different, in the sense that not only are we going to gather and discuss, there will be a lot of speeches given. But how do we move from that to actually getting the kind of things done that are critical? I’m not going to sit here today and tell you that we’re going to resolve every problem that will be raised and has been raised over the years, but I know the President of the United States and he cares deeply about this. They put together a great team already within the Biden Administration to focus on this; they have been for a number of months now in preparation for the meeting. And they want to have it go beyond, obviously, the positions taken. How do we actually resolve some of these things and come together to work on them? I’m confident that will happen because I say I’ve known him and I know the people who’ve been assigned the task of working on this at the State Department and elsewhere and that there is that appetite to get things done. But, you know, sometimes you have to begin by acknowledging what the mistakes have been. We haven’t been the best listener, that’s why we’re focused on listening, in a sense. I’m not gonna go back in history on this but too often I think there have been administrations that didn’t care as much about the region, had their attention elsewhere. That’s not the case, Joe Biden is hoping and planning that he’ll be able to meet with the CARICOM countries there and we can have a special kind of opportunity, particularly if we get the participation. That would be critical.”