Fifth Summit of the Americas to set course for a more dynamic Americas
|
| Published on Saturday, September 13, 2008 |
Email To Friend Print Version |
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad: National Coordinator of the 2009 Fifth Summit of the Americas, Ambassador Luis Alberto Rodriguez, has said next year's meeting "must set the course for a more dynamic Americas in the global community and create a strategic pathway for all our nations to advance toward greater peace, security and prosperity."
The Fifth Summit is being hosted by Trinidad and Tobago on April 17-19, 2009.
Addressing the 12th Annual Conference on Trade and Investment in the Americas, hosted by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, in Washington D.C. on September 11, the Ambassador said the Summit must also serve "to rejuvenate and strengthen the process of inter-american summitry and cooperation."
Ambassador Rodriguez, who also serves as Trinidad and Tobago's Special Envoy for the Americas, added that the Summit would have achieved its objectives if it helped to "refocus our development priorities and shape as far as is possible a collective vision for our region."
The National Summit Coordinator said his country had taken on the challenge of hosting the event because of "our very strong conviction in the value of multilateral cooperation in building a stronger, more resilient Americas."
He said the importance of the Fifth Summit "must be seen against the achievements and the difficulties of the summits process thus far and the vision of where we see the Americas a decade from now."
Ambassador Rodriguez referred to the fact that by April 2009, there will be several new national leaders, only some of whom would have participated in the Fourth Summit Mar del Plata, Argentina in 2005.
He said the Summit offered the opportunity "to proffer new ideas and new approaches to old, endemic problems as well emerging challenges."
He added that countries would also have the chance to assess global developments "and our place in the world order" while moving ahead together "to strengthen our integration efforts and forge a renewed and energised Inter-American Agenda driven by a collective vision of what we see our region progressing to, in the future."
"Most importantly," Ambassador Rodriguez said, the leaders would have "the opportunity to reconnect these Summits to the needs of our citizens and to have a meaningful, positive impact on their lives."
He said the challenges facing the hemisphere are widely acknowledged and understood and that "the task at hand is not easy."
"Poverty, inequality and marginalisation have been the bane of existence for too many in our societies," he said. "We will not overcome these challenges by taking a business as usual approach. It will require new thinking, innovative solutions, more coordinated responses, stronger integration efforts and greater cooperation among and within nations." | | | | Reads : 497 | | | |
|
|
