Jason Marzak

military presence, per se.

One of the top issues are combating criminal groups, insecurity, transnational criminal organizations, and they do want U.S.

support to be able to do so.

But that's not necessarily through the military.

That's

intelligence cooperation uh that's uh financial cooperation to be able to root out some of the economic underpinnings that allow tcos to be able to survive and thrive but what's also going to be fundamental for the u.s and the hemisphere to be seen as that partner of choice is accelerating investment into the hemisphere right that's that is what countries want um

They want to improve their economies, especially countries where there are significant critical mineral resources, is to up the value chain so it's not just extraction, but it's also additional production that's placed.

And there's a general apprehension in the hemisphere to the inroads that China has had because there are Chinese terms that do not take into account what is necessarily beneficial for the people in the countries in the hemisphere.

And there's a concern about being overly dependent upon the Chinese.

Look, in the end, we share a lot with our hemisphere.

Not only the significant Latino population and immigrant population overall in the United States, but also the shared culture, the shared history, shared values.

So we have a lot more in common with our hemisphere than the Chinese do.

And there's a preference for the U.S.

in general.

But the U.S.

just hasn't showed up to the table previously yet.

I think it's worth it, Kimberly, from a couple different angles.

One, I think it's worth it from the perspective of those who are questioning, well, what are we doing, another foreign military intervention?

If we're able to use limited U.S.

taxpayer dollars and not risk American lives, to be able to stamp out the influence of some of our –