JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas – U.S. Army South hosted the 7th annual Peru-U.S. Army Staff Talks at the U.S. Army South headquarters May 16-18 where delegations from the Peruvian and U.S. armies reviewed over 100 agreed-to-actions to take place over the next six years.
The U.S. Army Staff Talks Program serves as a bilateral forum for strategic-level discussion between respective armies to develop professional partnerships and increase interaction between partner nation armies.
“The staff talks allow us to, above all, establish mutual trust (and) to develop our intuitional transformation plan,” said Lt. Gen. David Ojeda Parra Peruvian Army chief of staff. “This is our third institutional transformation plan, which is the second transformation plan that has received support from the United States Army. That complements our efforts strongly because we are aiming toward the same goals, interests and shared values.”
During these talks, the U.S. Army works to develop activities with our partners in an effort to work together toward common goals. Agreed-to-actions can include anything from joint engineer projects, exchange programs between elite military schools, subject matter expert exchanges, doctrine exchanges, research and development cooperation and exercises.
“One of the engagements Army South is helping to facilitate between the Peruvian army and the U.S. Army Core of Engineers is a civil military emergency preparedness program,” said Maj. Allan M. Blair, U.S. Army South political-military plans officer.
“Support for emergency and risk management is one of the objectives we both want to achieve. We created the first multipurpose brigade, which has received support from Army South. The intent is to achieve a brigade-sized force interoperable with the U.S. Army,” said Ojeda.
Blair mentioned other efforts are underway for the next several years to include helping the Peruvian army modernize their doctrine and transform their human resources management systems.
As part of the Peruvian Army’s transformation plan, Army South G1 Director Col. Stewart J. VanBuren will lead a delegation from U.S. Army South along with senior members from the Peruvian Army’s Directorate of Personnel Resources to the U.S. Army Human Resources Command at Fort Knox, Kentucky.
“This engagement supports the Peruvian Army’s 13-year plan to completely transform the processes and products by which their Soldiers are managed, assigned, schooled, retained and retired,” said Lt. Col. Jason C. Atkinson, Army South chief of human resources, plans. “The significance of these activities is we apply the tenets of Lean Six Sigma and continuous process improvement to the Peruvian Army’s human resources doctrine, policies and methods. The end result will be an improved process management to better support interoperability between the United States and Peru.”
As a result of the staff talks, the Peruvian army also plans to participate as observers in Exercise Southern Vanguard in Colombia and Brazil. The Peruvian army also plans to conduct an iteration of the multi-lateral exercise in Peru in 2028.
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