"The president (Ollanta Humala Tasso) and I had this conversation on how we can support one and other in this fight against transnational criminal organizations," he said during a press conference at the Government Palace.

Fraser noted that the United States has very close relations with Peru and with other nations and other armed forces within South America, Central America and the Caribbean.

"We see that we face very common interests and very common concerns, the principal being the transnational criminal organizations," he stated.

Fraser said he had the opportunity to visit the remote Valley of the Apurimac and Ene Rivers (VRAE), one of the country's top drug producing areas, to learn first-hand about the problems the country faces.

"At the invitation of [Peru's Chief of the Joint Command of the Armed Forces] Gen. Howell I had the opportunity to visit the VRAE yesterday to understand the situation that Peru faces,"

"We are looking at how we can work together more closely to train one and other, to understand, to help improve a collective ability to understand the problems and work not only to support the Peruvian forces in Peru, in the VRAE, but to figure out where there are other opportunities to work together," he added.

Fraser said he and Peruvian authorities have talked about "our opportunities to share engineering support, medical support, how we can train with our special forces, with one and other and with other parts of our armed forces."

"We will continue to have these conversations and continue to work closely together to face our common threats," he added.