MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina, first step to Arab-Latam leaders' summit

Argentina will host this week a meeting of Foreign Affairs ministers from Latinamerica and the Arab countries (ASPA), an idea promoted by the Brazilian diplomacy to expand economic and trade links and strengthen political ties between the two regions.

A total of 34 ministers have been confirmed for the two days, Wednesday, Thursday, Buenos Aires meeting to talk about trade and investments. The group is scheduled to visit President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner in Casa Rosada Wednesday afternoon. Argentina's Foreign Secretary Jorge Taiana will open the ministerial summit in the morning and on Thursday a Buenos Aires declaration will be formally signed and released. Among the issues included are the preparations for a Latinamerican and Arab leaders' summit towards the end of the year in Kuwait. Twelve Latinamerican representatives and 22 from the Arab League have confirmed their presence. Those from Arab countries include: Saudi Arabia; Algiers; Egypt; United Arab Emirates; Jordan; Kuwait; Morocco; Palestine; Qatar, Sudan, Syria and Bahrein besides the secretary general from the Arab League. The joint document refers to objectives for an economic and social sustainable development, besides promoting commitment to multilateralism, pacific coexistence, and support for international mechanisms to eradicate famine, poverty and to launch development. Economic cooperation is another central point of the declaration with countries committed to intensify coordination in international economic and social forums with the purpose of increasing Arab and Latinamerican participation in the decision making process at world level. International trade is described as an essential tool for the promotion of economic development as long as it is "regulated, transparent, fair and non discriminatory". Regarding the world financial system and the current situation, the declaration calls for the promotion of structural reforms to guarantee a more relevant role by developing countries in the multilateral financial institutions.