Representatives of every member of the Organization of American States will be gathering in Panama April 10–11 for the seventh Summit of the Americas, a meeting held every three years. The 2015 theme is “Prosperity with Equity: The Challenge of Cooperation in the Americas.”
Secretary Kerry said that when then-President Bill Clinton convened the first Summit of the Americas in Miami in 1994, he urged the hemisphere’s leaders to work together to open new markets and free-trade zones, strengthen democratic institutions, and improve the quality of life for everyone.
Clinton said, “If we’re successful, the summit will lead to more jobs, opportunity and prosperity for our children and for generations to come.”
For the 2015 gathering in Panama, Kerry said, “We want this to be the ‘how’ Summit — focused on how we tackle a few big challenges and how we seize a few big opportunities” — as well as a summit that includes “meaningful and direct participation not just from leaders in government, but from businesses, human rights defenders [and] other credible civil society voices representing all the nations of our hemisphere.”
