PANAMA CITY, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- Visiting U.S. Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday vowed to seek common interests between the United States and Latin America after his regional tour to promote a hardline policy against Venezuela was defied by several countries.
U.S. President Donald Trump's "America First" policy refers not just to the United States of America, but to the entire American continent, Pence said in Panama, the last leg of his four-nation Latin America tour.
He delivered a speech at the Panama Canal that highlighted the purpose of his trip which is "to deepen our friendships and strengthen our partnerships" with the rest of the Western Hemisphere.
At a joint press conference with Pence on Wednesday in Santiago, Chilean President Michelle Bachelet said: "Chile will do everything it can to support Venezuelans in finding a peaceful path towards reestablishing democracy, but Chile will not support coups d'etat nor military interventions in Venezuela."
Her words were echoed earlier during Pence's trip by the presidents of Colombia and Argentina.
Under the leadership of Trump, "the United States will always put the security and prosperity of America first. But as I hope our presence here today demonstrates, America First does not mean America alone," Pence said in Panama.
"Today, as in ages past, the interests of the United States and Latin America are intertwined, our security and prosperity will rise in tandem," Pence added.
Pence spoke at the Cocoli Locks on the Pacific side of the expanded waterway, which was under U.S. control for much of its 100-year history.
Downplaying Trump's pro-protectionism stance, Pence said the president "seeks to usher in a new era of shared prosperity all across this new world."
The message comes just a day after Mexico, the United States and Canada sat down to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a two-decade trade deal that Trump wants to trim down to lure industries and jobs back to the United States.
Still, Pence said his country "wants to trade even more with our neighbors in Latin America ... to invest even more in Latin America."
