Ambassador Hugues Rousseau began his speech by acknowledging the dedication and contribution of different actors who make the America's goal of a hemisphere free of anti-personnel mines achievable. These actors include the Air Force, whose expert knowledge and dedication to the cause contribute greatly in the areas of mine clearance, destruction of stockpiles and education. Ambassador Rousseau also acknowledged the Organization of American States (OAS) and in particular, the efforts of William McDonough and his team. The dedication, knowledge, and leadership of the OAS can be held as a model for the whole region. These organizations, along with the commitment of donor states and the cooperation of the governments make real progress in the hemisphere possible.

The progress of mine action in the last few years has been impressive. The global trade of anti-personnel landmines has all but halted, production of new mines has been reduced significantly, the Ottawa Convention has had a huge impact on reducing mine casualties, stockpiles are being destroyed, resources for Mine Action programs such as mine clearance, victim assistance, mine risk education, stockpile destruction, development of mine action technology are steady. All these strides in mine action have contributed to the ultimate goal of returning the land to safe and productive uses.

In order to eliminate the threat of mines in years rather than decades, there needs to be a sustained commitment in humanitarian demining. Ambassador Rousseau urged the conference participants to use the next two days to set achievable, regional and national goals and to make a plan as to how those goals will be reached. He then went on to propose a few goals of his own. Prior to the 2004 review conference, Ambassador Rousseau sees it as possible for Honduras and Guatemala to join El Salvador and Costa Rica as mine-free countries, followed by Nicaragua in 2005. With this, Central America will be the first region to be declared mine free. There is no better way to prove the region's leadership and commitment to the convention. Other goals set by Ambassador Rousseau are to have all of the countries in the region file their article 7 reports to the convention and most importantly, every country should commit themselves to the assistance of landmine survivors by developing a comprehensive mine action assistance plan. Ambassador Rousseau expressed the need for every country to show mine action as a clear national priority to donors. Without this national commitment to mine action, donors will fade, and goals cannot be reached without the support of the donors.

Ambassador Rousseau concluded by reminding participants that the America's leadership combined with their commitment to mine action is incomparable with other regions in the world. This, combined with the region's comparably small landmine contamination, gives the region a unique opportunity to finish what they started and achieve a hemisphere free of anti-personnel mines. Ambassador Rousseau ended by offering Canada's continued pledge and cooperation toward achieving this collective goal.