São Paulo – High-level employees of South American countries should meet in Cairo, Egypt, on February 29th and March 1st. They are going to discuss the text that the 34 nations in the Summit of South American-Arab Countries (Aspa) will present in its third meeting, to take place in Peru, in September.
According to the director of the Inter-Regional Mechanisms Department at the Foreign Ministry, Flávio Damico, the diplomats should discuss mainly political questions of the countries in the Aspa. “We are going to take to the meeting the text of the joint declaration that focuses mainly on political questions. The political reality is mutating and in recent months many things have changed in the Arab world,” he said.
According to Damico, who should represent Brazil at the meeting, stretches referring to Libya and Syria should be re-discussed. In Libya, dictator Muammar Kadafi was ousted and killed in 2011. According to Damico, there are "obsolete" paragraphs that covered Libya. Syria is living conflict as opposition and Bashar Al Assad government forces are clashing.
Some of the topics of interest commonly covered by political coordinators of the Aspa are the strengthening of International Law, reform of organisations, support to peaceful disputes in the Middle East and South America, dialogue between people and economic development.
Still according to Damico, apart from the meeting of high-level employees to take place in Cairo, ministers of the South American and Arab countries have met in sectorial meetings. In January, for example, an Arab League delegation visited Brazil to learn about social projects that the country develops and that could be applied to other nations.
There have also been meetings with ministers in the Economic, Cultural and Environmental areas. "Dialogue is fluid and consistent. We are opening routes,” said Damico.
The Aspa Summit was created in 2005. On the South American side, it includes Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guiana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela. Among the Arabs, the summit includes Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Bahrain, Qatar, the Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Mauritania, Oman, Palestine, Syria, Somalia, Sudan and Tunisia.
The first summit took place in Brasília and the second in Doha, Qatar, in 2009. Before the event in Peru, a meeting of high-level workers similar to the one in Cairo will take place in South America. Guiana has already shown interest in receiving the meeting. The date is yet to be scheduled.
*Translated by Mark Ament
