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OAS SECRETARY GENERAL UNDERTAKES MANDATES FROM THE SUMMIT OF THE AMERICAS

The Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS) José Miguel Insulza said he is ready to start immediately the follow up process to the “mandates” issued to the organization at the recent Fifth Summit of the Americas in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, an event that according to him was “a much greater success than expected.”

Insulza presented the OAS Permanent Council with the conclusions of the meeting of the 34 democratically elected Heads of State and Government in the Hemisphere. Secretary General Insulza emphasized the “cordial climate” that presided the meeting, which featured “good debate and interesting ideas.”

Insulza also highlighted the quality of the agenda agreed by the leaders, which includes all topics currently worrying people across the continent. “We have a clear agenda: Crisis, unemployment, inequality and poverty, trade, energy, global warming, crime and violence and, even though not debated in Trinidad and Tobago, migration.”

The OAS Secretary General stressed that the hemisphere “has now the beginning of a route-plan” to deal with those topics, such as the meeting of Finance Ministers in Chile on July 3rd, the meeting in Peru in June about energy co-operation, and the meeting of Ministers of Security in Uruguay in August.

Insulza particularly highlighted that the Summit leaves the OAS “with a series of open issues to be dealt with as mandates,”, especially the content of the Declaration of Port-of-Spain, which had the consensus of all Heads of State and Government, and the Statement of the Chair, issued by the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Patrick Manning.

Among those goals to be pursued, Insulza mentioned the possibility of calling a Conference on Development, a Meeting of Consultation for the Continent to develop a common policy towards the Meeting on Climate Change to take place in December in Copenhagen, studying the exclusion of Cuba from the Inter-American System, analyzing the viability of development programs in Haiti and strengthening the leadership at the Joint Summit Working Group.

OAS Secretary General also highlighted the “great job” done by the authorities of Trinidad and Tobago in organizing the Summit of the Americas, an stressed especially the skills of the host Prime Minister, Patrick Manning, to steer the meetings.

Insulza explained that the biggest progress at the Summit was achieved at the four working sessions on Saturday, including lunch, where the main issues where debated: economic crisis, climate change, energy co-operation and crime, government and democracy and follow-up on Summits.

The report by the Secretary General was deemed “precise” and “truthful” by all permanent representatives that spoke during the meeting of the Permanent Council.


All of them, starting with the Chairman of the Permanent Council and Permanent Representative of Canada to the OAS; Ambassador Graeme Clark, joined Secretary General Insulza in congratulating the government of Trinidad and Tobago on the Summit success and the OAS Staff on the support provided.

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Reference: E-139/09