XXIX Ibero-American Summit begins in Ecuador

Cuenca (Ecuador) (EFE).- The XXIX Ibero-American Summit began this Friday in Cuenca (Ecuador), with the lowest attendance of leaders in the history of this forum, which began in 1991, and no Also without the Chairman, except for the host Daniel Noboa, a fact also unprecedented in this series of meetings between the twenty-two countries of Ibero-America.

The event was attended only by the King of Spain, Felipe VI, whose motto is ‘Innovation, Inclusion and Sustainability’; the president of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, and the head of the government of Andorra, Javier Espot, while, in another unprecedented event, the seats of three countries remained vacant: Mexico, Nicaragua and Venezuela, which maintain severed ties with Ecuador.

Ibero-American summit amid tensions

Despite the low attendance of leaders, delegations are working to adopt a declaration that incorporates the agreements made during the preparatory meetings, especially in matters of cooperation, but also in the dialogue on barriers to gender-focused policies in sustainable development in countries opposite Goals (SDGs), sources close to the negotiations told EFE.

According to other sources consulted by EFE during the development of the meeting of foreign ministers, tensions also focused on Cuba’s disagreement with Argentina’s intention to remove from the declaration its condemnation of the United States blockade of the Caribbean country.

Given the difficulty of achieving the consensus necessary to issue a declaration from this summit, countries such as Spain, Costa Rica, Panama and Chile promoted a declaration supported by the vast majority of participants, which would not be the official document of the event.

Allamand calls for unity

In his speech at the opening ceremony of the Ibero-American summit, the Ibero-American Secretary-General, Chilean Andrés Allamand, acknowledged, “It would be absurd to ignore that the region is going through turbulent times.”

The head of the Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB) stressed that “the world needs at least multilateralism, cooperation and solidarity,” in a context where “politics is surrounded by fragmentation and polarization.”

“The result is great difficulty in building consensus, which slows down reforms that could lay new foundations for prosperity and co-existence,” Allamand said.

In that sense, he recalled that “the Ibero-American meeting allows us to distinguish ourselves in a world in which conflicts are increasing, threats are looming and injustices persist.”

“The Ibero-American meeting is one that allows reaching consensus in times of differences, providing unity in times of fragmentation, and promoting solidarity”, as well as, “allowing decisions to be taken in times of differences.” A step towards debate, but not boycott.”

Thus, Allamand invites us to “claim Ibero-America” ​​and “take advantage of more than 30 years of work in which the search for consensus has prevailed and in which progress has been made with real impact on people’s lives ” “This is not a time for resignation, but for ambition,” he said.

Noboa: “We held the summit despite conflicts”

For his part, Ngoboa affirmed that his administration “has worked to complete this summit, despite all internal and external problems and conflicts.”

The 36-year-old Latin America’s youngest president called for innovative solutions against transnational organized crime, climate change, inclusion of youth in labor, environmental protection, access to education and strengthening connectivity.

For this reason, he encouraged the support of youth through job creation and vocational training, which in his opinion would open the way towards equitable economic development.

“This will only be possible to achieve with the commitment of the business sector, as evidenced at the XV Ibero-American Business Meeting, which concluded this afternoon with the approval of the ‘Commitment to Employment’ ” meeting.

“The alarming unemployment rates make us easy targets of organized crime, which undermines the economic and social development of our nations. We must promote policies that encourage public-private investment and allocate resources to education to create a better future for the youth,” he concluded.

Following the opening of the XXIX Ibero-American Summit, the Forum will continue this Friday with the development of the Plenary Session, which will be attended by heads of state and government, as well as representatives of other countries.