MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Vazquez celebrates in Israel, Uruguay Independence Day

Uruguayan Pte. Tabare Vazquez

Uruguay's President Tabaré Vazquez will be celebrating his country's independence day, August 25, in Israel, the first leg of a three country tour (Switzerland and South Korea) he is visiting with a high level official and business delegation.

Vazquez arrived on Friday for his first state visit to Israel, a five day trip during which he will meet Primer Minister Ehud Olmert, President Shimon Peres and Foreign Minister Tipzi Livni. An oncologist by profession this is not the first time Mr. Vazquez visits Israel: he studied for half a year at the Weismann Institute in Rehovot, and visited in 1992 as mayor of Montevideo. Uruguay has a long and rich relationship with Israel. At the 1920 San Remo conference, Uruguay strongly supported the Balfour Declaration. Before World War II, thousands of European Jews - from Germany and Hungary in particular - found refuge in Uruguay; in 1939 alone, some 2,200 Jews entered the country. In 1947, Uruguay's UN delegate, Rodriguez Fabregat, was instrumental in getting the partition plan passed. Three days before it did, he posed a question to the General Assembly at Flushing Meadow, New York: "Why is it necessary that there should be a Jewish State? precisely to put an end to that form of discrimination and alienation, [and] persecution of a section of humanity." The decision to create that state, he said, "will go down to history as the first great moral victory of the United Nations." The following year, Uruguay became the first Latin American country to recognize the State of Israel, and later became one of the few countries to recognize Jerusalem as the capital. Uruguay's capital, for its part, boasts a Golda Meir Square. Besides political relations Israel and Uruguay are working closely to improve economic and trade links. Israel imports some 70 million US dollars a year from Uruguay and last December, Minister of Industry and Trade Eli Yishai traveled to Montevideo to sign a free trade agreement with Mercosur. According to the agreement - Israel's first in South America - customs duties will be cut by 40% over the next four years, and in some sectors entirely within a decade. The trade accord, ratified this week by Uruguay's parliament, "shows how important the Israeli market has become," said Itzhak Levanon, Israel's representative at the World Trade Organization. From Israel Vazquez and the delegation which includes several ministers is scheduled to arrive in Geneva on Wednesday, where he will meet with the president of the Swiss Federation Council Pascal Couchepin and with the World Trade Organization Director General, Pascal Lamy. However most of the visit will be related to Mr. Vazquez oncologist condition. He will open the International Union against Cancer Congress, visit the University Hospital in Geneva and will be meeting with the Director General of the World Health Organization, Margaret Chan. The following Saturday the delegation arrives in Seoul and on Monday September first begins the official visit meeting President Lee Myung-bak.