MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

South American Community not to compete with OAS.

Peruvian Foreign Minister Manuel Rodriguez Cuadros said on Saturday that the future South American Community of Nations will neither seek to minimize nor compete with the Organization of American States (OAS) because the two are complementary.

"A more united and homogeneous South America will allow the OAS to act with greater efficiency," the Peruvian minister said.

Twelve countries of South America will establish next Wednesday the South American Community of Nations at the 3rd Presidential Summit of the region, to be held in the Peruvian city of Cuzco.

Rodriguez Cuadros explained that the South American Community will be dedicated not only to economic, political and infrastructure integration, but will also be a factor in achieving more balanced hemispheric relations. The chief of Peru's diplomatic mission said that together the Caribbean Community (Caricom), the Central American Common Market and the new South American Community of Nations will facilitate action on a pan-Latin American level.

The Peruvian minister said that the new bloc, made up of the Andean Community of Nations (CAN), Mercosur, Chile, Guyana and Surinam, will cover 17 million square kilometers (6.5 million square miles) inhabited by 361 million people, and will boast annual exports of more than $180 billion and a GDP greater than $973 billion.

Rodriguez Cuadros added that the South American Community incorporates the project for the Integration of South American Regional Infrastructure (IIRSA) and the free-trade accords between Mercosur and the Andean Community. In addition, the minister said that at the summit Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo and Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will sign an agreement at the ancient Inca fortress of Sacsayhuaman that will establish financing for the interoceanic highway that will connect Assis in Brazil with the ports of Matarani, Ilo and Marcona on the coast of Peru.