ALBA Countries Meet in Havana

The Political Council of the Bolivarian Alliance for the People of Our America-Trade Treaty of the People (ALBA-TCP, in Spanish) is holding in Havana Monday its 15th ordinary session as a follow up of the body''s 15th Summit held in Caracas, Venezuela, in March.

The meeting will reportedly help reinforce unity among the member States, its capacity of regional compromise and the Latin American integration process.

ALBA-TCP was created on December 14, 2004, as an alternative to US-proposed Free Trade Area for the Americas that collapsed in 2005.

The regional body is made up of Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda, Ecuador, St. Vincent and The Grenadines, Santa Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis, and Granada.

The Foreign Ministers of the participating countries sit at the bloc's Political Council. The are entrusted with advising the Presidential Council on matters such as political strategies and coming up with proposal on international political issues for debate at the summit level.

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro and his Foreign Minister Delcy Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca arrived ahead of them.

It is expected that the Havana gathering will ratify the final declaration of the Caracas Presidential Summit and reaffirmed the members' compromise with the Peace Zone Declaration agreed upon in 2014 by the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States.