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U.S. Has a Strong Friend in Costa Rica
Secretary of State Marco Rubio hailed Costa Rica as “a model for what we want to see other countries in the region become,” during his recent visit to the Central American nation.
Secretary Rubio thanked the Costa Rican president Rodrigo Chaves Robles for prioritizing the security of their 5G system by only allowing trusted vendors to bid on it and keeping out companies that’re back by China, which often uses economic coercion and sabotage.
“And [Costa Rica has] been very firm, and I think they deserve a lot of support in confronting that and in carrying out a process of responsibly bringing 5G, which is going to be essential to future economic development.”
Costa Rica is also facing a cyber security issue, warned Secretary Rubio.
“It’s very serious – 110 million cyber-attacks a year for a country of this size – it’s extraordinary, and they have faced it very bravely. We’re going to continue to work on what we’re already doing together to help them secure their telecommunication systems and more broadly against cyber-attacks.”
Costa Rica is a place where people try to traffic drugs. And that’s why the United States is “going to continue to work with you on providing the technologies ... to prevent the exportation of drugs.” Secretary Rubio suggested the U.S. may provide more DEA and FBI resources to assist Costa Rican authorities conduct investigations, capture and arrest drug traffickers.
While Costa Rica is not a source of migration to the United States, it is a route that’s used for migration. The one area “we’ve really worked very closely on is biometric data sharing” to help identify individuals who have links to terrorism, said Secretary Rubio.
“That’s an important partnership and it’s one we want to build on, and we’re going to look for opportunities to build on and make stronger than ever through intelligence sharing, biometric sharing in real time, and very close coordination to ensure that this never becomes a place where terrorists can transit and do harm somewhere else.”
“We need to have a foreign policy in which we are firm in confronting those that seek to do harm to the United States,” said Secretary Rubio, “and we are strong in support of those that work so closely with us,” like Costa Rica.