For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
November 15, 2002

Statement on Inter-American Convention Against Terrorism

On November 12, the President Submitted the Inter-American Convention Against Terrorism to the Senate for its advice and consent to ratification. The Convention was negotiated in direct response to the events of September 11, 2001, and was adopted at the Organization of American States (OAS) General Assembly meeting in Bridgetown, Barbados, on June 3, 2002. As the attacks of September 11 brought home to our hemisphere, economic growth requires security as well as trade agreements and economic reforms.

We face a common threat to our security and prosperity, and together the nations of our hemisphere have responded. The Convention binds us even closer in our common battle against those who seek to destroy the values of democracy and values of tolerance that we cherish so greatly. The Convention will strengthen regional cooperation in the fight against terrorism in a variety of areas: exchanges of information; exchanges of experience and training; technical cooperation; and mutual legal assistance. The Convention is consistent with and builds upon previous counterterrorism instruments as well as UN Security Council Resolution 1373.

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