The 2026 Shield of the Americas Summit signaled a strategic shift by prioritizing regional security and economic partnerships in the Western Hemisphere, though it left specific strategies for countering Chinese influence largely unaddressed.
On March 7, President Trump hosted the inaugural Shield of the Americas Summit in Doral, Florida. Perhaps intended to replace the decades-running Summit of the Americas, the gathering marked the beginning of a new regional security architecture and offered insights into how the President may plan to operationalize his “Americas First” policy.
Here are four key takeaways from the summit.
Takeaway #1 | The summit demonstrated that the Western Hemisphere is a true strategic priority for the Trump administration.
In government circles, attendance often signals an event’s strategic weight. President Trump’s attendance at Shield of the Americas -- alongside many of his top advisors, like Secretary of State Rubio, Secretary of Defense Hegseth, Secretary of the Treasury Bessent, Secretary of Commerce Lutnick, US Trade Representative Greer, and Homeland Security Advisor Miller – demonstrated this. That such high-ranking officials were present, even as conflict with Iran escalated, indicates that the administration’s focus on the Western Hemisphere is a genuine strategic priority, not mere rhetoric.
At the same time, the fact that 12 foreign heads of state attended and a total of 17 nations were represented shows that the United States is once again commanding the attention of the Western Hemisphere in ways that only China has been able to do in recent years.
Takeaway #2 | The summit showed that security cooperation is the central theme of the Trump Administration’s engagement with Latin America and the Caribbean, but economic ties are deepening as well.
The National Security Strategy clearly outlined a security-forward agenda for Latin America. The Shield of the Americas Summit was the first step towards operationalizing the approach outlined in this document. With discussions on intelligence sharing, military cooperation, and defense partnerships taking place, the Summit replaced the often-vague pledges for “cooperation” common at past summits with a tangible focus on countering cartels in the Western Hemisphere.
While security occupied center stage, President Trump also signed several economic deals on the sidelines of the meeting. For instance, newly inaugurated Chilean president Jose Antonio Kast announced a new minerals deal with the United States. The agreement fulfills a core objective of the National Security Strategy by bolstering ties between the United States and the region on minerals.
Takeaway #3 | President Trump views part of his legacy as reinventing regional and multilateral cooperation architecture.
Notably, unlike the Summit of the Americas, there were no multilateral representatives present in Doral. Just as the Board of Peace appears designed to create an international body that competes with – or even replaces – the United Nations, the Shield suggests a move to bypass some of the regional bodies that have failed in recent years to fulfill their mandate, including the Organization of American States.
Here, Trump appears focused on creating a coalition of like-minded partners in the region and pitching the benefits of partnership with the United States. How that will be received by those countries and leaders who were not invited – whether it ultimately serves to draw them closer in the future or turns them further away – remains to be seen, but Trump’s convening power was firmly displayed with the Shield of the Americas.
Takeaway #4 | While China reacted to the Shield summit with anti-American propaganda, indicating that it is increasingly worried about the United States’ resurgent influence in the region, the President missed a key opportunity to push strategies that counter the PRC.
While the prioritization of the hemisphere is already being realized, how the United States intends to counter Chinese influence remains unclear. Pushing Russia, China, and Iran out of the region is a core focus of the National Security Strategy. President Trump’s press conference following the apprehension of Nicolas Maduro signaled that focus as well, but since then there has been little policy activity to support this goal.
From the public reporting of the summit, little was said about China or the ways the United States plans to replace China’s influence in the region. Given President Trump did not identify China as an adversary in his recent State of the Union address, the failure to use the Shield of the Americas Summit to more seriously address the China threat in the Western Hemisphere suggests a lack of clarity, and perhaps a lackluster commitment, to what should be a top policy objective on its own.
Though the old Summit of the Americas was a valuable idea, the emphasis on meetings over outcomes hampered its success. The Shield of the Americas is an American-led initiative that could help reinforce President Trump’s stated priorities of expanding American relationships in the region and countering adversaries. While not perfect, the inaugural summit was a step in the right direction. It expanded security cooperation between the United States and much of the rest of the Western Hemisphere, and it deepened economic and investment ties that have the potential to pay significant dividends in the future.
On the issue of Chinese influence in the region, President Trump plans to visit Beijing at the end of the March. It will be important to watch how the Western Hemisphere factors into the trip outcomes.
