The Ibero-American Summit closes with consensus on its four main objectives

The Ibero-American Summit closes with consensus on its four main objectives
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26 March 2023
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The Ibero-American Summit closed this Saturday with consensus on its four main objectives: environmental charter, digital, food security and financial architecture, the latter being the most discussed until the last moment.

In addition, the Ibero-American heads of state and government reached agreements on other matters such as the Third Four-Year Action Plan for cooperation 2023-2027, the decision to promote gender equality and the commitment to promoting democracy.

At the final press conference, the host of the summit, Dominican President Luis Abinader, said that they also reached commitments on international law including the principle of sovereignty, non-intervention in the affairs between states and their legal equality.

They also agreed on the importance of a new migration regulation that respects the human rights of migrants, the coordination of the fight against transnational crime and the need for a fairer system.

The 22 participating countries expressed their "deep concern" about the situation in Haiti and expressed their full solidarity with the Caribbean country.

The energy transition, marine sustainability, the Cuban embargo and the situation in the Falklands were other issues discussed.

Immigration, Haiti and the EU-Latin America relationship

Immigration, support for Haiti and the relaunching of relations between Latin America and the European Union (EU) were among the important topics of the summit, according to the Secretary General for Ibero-America, Andrés Allamand, at the final press conference.

Allamand pointed to immigration as an important issue, which affects all regions of the world and in particular the Ibero-American community.

The Ibero-American Secretary General announced that in the search for solutions, the summit had come up with the idea of organising a conference on immigration in the third quarter of this year, although the place and date have yet to be decided.

As for the situation in Haiti, Allamand stressed that "it has become an important issue for the Ibero-American community", and corroborated Abinader's idea that without pacification there can be no solution for the Caribbean country.

"The prior step for ideas such as the creation of institutions and the normalisation of the country is its pacification", he reiterated.

With regard to EU-Latin American relations, he highlighted the intervention at the summit of the head of European diplomacy, the Spaniard Josep Borrell.

"We want the Spanish presidency of the European Union in the second half of the year to be a boost. It has been eight years since we last met between the two regions at a political level," said Allamand, who hoped that the unfinished agreements would be closed and that negotiations would not take forever, and that there would be strong support for investment in both directions.

The next summit in Quito

Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso spoke at the press conference on the next summit to be held on 29 November 2024 in Quito, under the theme "Innovation, inclusion and sustainability in Ibero-America".

"Ecuador accepts the challenge," said Lasso, who referred to three other major topics to be discussed at the regional forum: promoting circular economies, food security and ecological transition.

"The challenges require joint action by all members of the Ibero-American community," said Lasso, and he called for "looking with hope" to the unity of the region. 

Financial architecture, the main stumbling block

The main stumbling block at this summit was reaching a commitment to create a new financial architecture to help recover from the consequences of the pandemic and face the difficult international situation.

It was only at lunch that it was agreed to give visibility to the issue of financial architecture to mitigate external debt.

But Abinader was keen to point out that this was more a matter of form than substance, and it will now be up to the finance and treasury ministers to work on this project.

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