On March 18^th and 19^th, the United States and Peru held the 2013 Political-Military Dialogue in Washington DC. U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs, Beth McCormick, Director General for the Americas from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Peru, Ambassador Claudio de la Puente and Director General for International Relations of the Ministry of Defense of Peru, Ambassador Mario Lopez, led the Dialogue.

This meeting resulted in a productive exchange of information and dialogue on new challenges and opportunities for security and defense cooperation. Both sides stressed their significant and profound agreement on various bilateral and multilateral issues.

The parties discussed issues such as developing strategies for increased collaboration and best practices between the armed forces and civilian security services in the fight against terrorism and drug trafficking, and trilateral cooperation with other partners in the region to combat new security threats.

Furthermore, both delegations dealt with training and exchanges in the framework of bilateral military cooperation mechanisms, institutional strengthening of the Ministries of Defense, as well as new opportunities for collaboration in support of humanitarian demining and stockpile management and security.

The global agenda items also formed part of the talks, highlighting efforts in favor of nuclear non-proliferation, negotiations on disarmament, the Nuclear Security Summit, and peacekeeping operations.

The Memorandum of Understanding on Strengthening Military-Political Dialogue between the two countries signed by the Deputy Secretary of the U.S. State Department William Burns and Ambassador of Peru in the United States, Harold Forsyth in March 2012 formalized the biennial talks.

The next high-level Political Military Dialogue will be held in Lima in 2015.