And that spirit of shared responsibility was reflected in the achievement of the summit and in the work that the United States has done in concert with nations across Americas. First, we’re building on our unprecedented efforts in the United States — and on the work that we did at the G20 summit in London — to jumpstart job creation, reform a broken financial regulatory system, and put our economies on the path of sustainable growth and shared prosperity. We’re tripling the International Monetary Fund’s lending capacity. We’re urging the Inter-American Development Bank to increase its current lending level. And the United States is launching a new Microfinance Growth Fund for the hemisphere that will make meaningful differences for businesses and entrepreneurs across America [sic].
Over the past few days, we also discussed what we can do to ensure that the policies we pursue in our own countries advance and do not undercut our broader regional recovery. Together, these efforts will help drive economic expansion in the United States and across the hemisphere and ensure that we do not see an erosion of the progress that we’ve made to lift people out of poverty and into the middle class.
Second, we’re acting boldly, we are acting swiftly, and we are acting in concert to combat threats that are endangering the safety and security of citizens across the Americas. This week, I traveled to Mexico, where I met with President Calderón to advance our shared commitment to combating the drug cartels, stemming the southbound flow of guns and money, and protecting citizens on both sides of our common border.
We’re also taking a number of other key steps in concert with our regional partners. So when I met with the Central American nations and the Caribbean nations, they had similar concerns and we pledged to work together to defend our nations and keep our people safe. The United States is investing $30 million in enhanced security partnerships with Caribbean nations to ensure that they have the resources they need to combat drug traffickers seeking to enter their borders from Mexico and Central America. And I’m also making it a priority to ratify the Illicit Trafficking in Firearms Convention and to enhance cooperation with nations across the region to reduce the threat of existing weapons stockpiles.
Third, we’re taking a critical step to drive our economic expansion, enhance our security, and protect the bounty and beauty of the hemisphere with a new Energy-Climate Partnership of the Americas that I proposed. Through this partnership, we will harness the progress being made by nations across the hemisphere — from Brazil’s work on biofuels, to Chile’s investments in solar power, to Mexico’s efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions, to El Salvador’s work on geothermal energy.