Representatives of Central America's governments announced that they would create a comprehensive regional security plan to combat terrorism and organized crime.
Otto Pérez Molina, the president of Guatemala, who as former head of his country's military intelligence service experienced the power of drug cartels at close hand, is pushing his fellow Latin American leaders to use the summit to endorse a new regional security plan that would see an end to prohibition.
Felipe Calderon's war on drugs proved the perfect vehicle for breaking down resistance to U.S. intervention and making huge inroads in its regional security plan, which includes integrating Mexico into its "regional security perimeter".
Mr. de Villepin, who says that the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians is the gravest threat to regional security today, plans a five-day visit to Israel and the Israeli-occupied territories on May 10.
Admiral Clark said it made sense to have regional commanders draw up security plans for every ship that visits a region "so that they're standardized and everybody's executing the same piece".
The US said the launch would threaten regional security and Russia described the plan as a "serious concern".
"The program will watch over State Department facilities and personnel and assist regional security officers with high-threat mission planning and execution," the document said.
This plan, described as a regional security cooperation initiative, locks in three Bush policies that have resulted in demonstrable failure, major human rights violations, and death: the war on drugs, the counterterrorism paradigm, and border security.
One of Sisi's biggest challenges will be to counter any unrest with a firm but fair tactical plan that doesn't compound an already fragile regional security disposition as seen in Syria, Turkey and Iraq.
China, a close ally of Pyongyang, said the exercises - initially planned for the Yellow Sea - were a threat to regional security.
As a further sign of Russia-China interdependence, on Thursday, the two countries' presidents, Dmitri A. Medvedev and Hu Jintao, plan to meet at a conference in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, for their regional security alliance, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
