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THE SUMMITS PROCESS HAS TRANSFORMED THE HEMISPHERIC AGENDA

The Summits of the Americas process has reshaped the inter-American agenda in recent years and intensified international cooperation at the ministerial level, the Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), César Gaviria, said.

“There has been a total transformation of our agenda, of our way of doing business,” said Gaviria, in explaining the importance of the upcoming Special Summit of the Americas, which will take place in Monterrey, Mexico, January 12 and 13.

During a seminar organized by the OAS Summits of the Americas Secretariat for the news media and press officers in the region’s foreign ministries, Gaviria said the mandates stemming from the Summits of Heads of State and Government have shaped the efforts of ministerial meetings on education, justice, labor, trade and other areas. As a result of this whole process, he said, the hemispheric agenda and countries’ domestic agendas increasingly overlap.

The seminar–“Why Another Summit of the Americas?”–examined the importance of the three central topics to be discussed in Mexico: democratic governance, social development and growth with equity. The countries felt that challenges in the region, including the problem of growing poverty, justified holding a Special Summit before the next regular meeting scheduled for 2005 in Argentina.

In addition to the urgency of the problems, another factor was that 14 presidents or prime ministers in the region have taken office since the last Summit of the Americas in 2001, said Mexico’s Assistant Secretary for Latin America and the Caribbean, Miguel Hakim. It was important, he said, for all the leaders to meet and for the new heads of government to be able to study the decisions taken in Quebec and to share their vision regarding the future of the hemisphere. Hakim said the Monterrey Summit will be brief and will produce a political declaration but will not replace the Plan of Action adopted in Quebec City.

The seminar’s panelists included ambassadors, academics, journalists and representatives of civil society and international organizations, among others, who presented the points of view of different actors in the process, according to Irene Klinger, Executive Secretary of the OAS Summits of the Americas Secretariat.

Meanwhile, negotiations continued at OAS headquarters on the draft Declaration of Nuevo León, which would be approved at the Special Summit in January. The Summit Implementation Review Group, made up of representatives of the 34 countries, has been meeting since Monday to discuss the text of the document and to receive input on various topics. The current round of negotiations is expected to conclude later today.

Reference: E-244/03