US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with her Canadian and Mexican counterparts Peter MacKay and Patricia Espinosa in Ottawa Feb. 23 for a summit of the North American Security and Prosperity Initiative (NASPI [1], or ASPAN by its Spanish acronym), which was launched at a March 2006 conference in Cancun. Coordinated response to narco-trafficking, organized crime and terrorism topped the agenda, under the catch-phrase "secure and intelligent borders." Presidents Bush and Felipe Calderón are to meet to discuss the program with Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Canada this August. (Notimex [2], Feb. 24)

See our last posts on Mexico [3], Canada [4], NAFTA [5] and the militarization of NAFTA [6].