Brasília (DF) – The Conference of Commanders of American Armies (CCEA) will be held between November 6 and 9 in the cities of Rio de Janeiro (RJ) and Resende (RJ). Organized by the Brazilian Army, the event is part of Cycle XXXV of the Conference of American Armies (CEA), an international body that has existed since 1960 and brings together armies from the three Americas, as well as participants from other continents and international bodies. The CEA is chaired by the Brazilian Army for the 2022-2023 biennium, and this is the fourth time that Brazil has been responsible for the work.
The Commanders’ Conference will be attended by 22 delegations: Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, Dominican Republic, Uruguay, Spain, Portugal and the Inter-American Defense Board.
According to the Secretary General of the CAA, General Dutra, the Commanders’ Conference represents the pinnacle of military diplomacy within the CAA. “The commanders are going to consolidate what has been debated and worked on over the last two years. There is a timeline, in which intermediate and specialized meetings were held in order to achieve the macro objective, which is the mandatory theme ‘Army of the Future’.”
Program
The official opening of the event will take place on Monday 6 in Rio de Janeiro. On the morning of the 7th, there will be the Plenary Meeting of the Commanders of the American Armies, during which the inclusion of the Portuguese Army will be voted on and agreements and protocols drawn up during the current cycle will be approved, as well as changes to the Conference regulations. In the afternoon, there will be bilateral meetings between the commanders and representatives of each army.
On November 8, the members of the CAA will accompany the operational readiness of the troops of the 1st Army Division in Vila Militar. Afterwards, the commanders will travel to the Agulhas Negras Military Academy (AMAN), in Resende (RJ), where the ceremony to hand over the presidency of the Conference of American Armies from the Brazilian Army to the Mexican Army will take place.
Conference of American Armies
The CAA is a discussion forum whose objectives include identifying issues of mutual interest in the field of defense, increasing cooperation and integration between the armies, determining concrete initiatives to improve interoperability, dealing with specific issues established in advance by mutual agreement and allowing personal contact between the commanders of the member armies. The CAA has 29 members, including armies and international organizations.
“It’s a forum for regional integration, where the armies of the American continent have the opportunity to debate current issues and get to know each other better. Currently, with the complexities of the modern world, almost all armies are going through a phase of transformation. Over the last two years, we have been debating the ‘Army of the Future’. We then sought to ascertain the characteristics needed to meet the challenges,” explains General Dutra.
Cycle XXXV had the obligatory theme “The contribution of the Conference of American Armies to the process of transformation and preparation of the ‘Army of the Future’ to expand cooperation and integration in facing the challenges and threats that could affect the security and stability of the American continent”.
To discuss the issue, the CAA organized six specialized conferences, under the responsibility of different countries, to address issues such as interoperability, army transformation processes, cyber security and defense, modernization processes and doctrine development, among others.
Cycle XXXV also included a Combined Exercise focusing on humanitarian aid in the event of a natural disaster, Operation PARANÁ III, in the region of Foz do Iguaçu (PR). Planned in 2022 and carried out on the ground in 2023, the operation involved troops from the CEA’s member armies.
*** Translated by DEFCONPress FYI TEAM ***