MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Unasur meeting in Quito to promote confidence-building measures

Ecuadorian Defence minister expects results from the coming Quito meeting

Ecuador expects all Foreign Affairs and Defence ministers from Unasur countries to be present next Tuesday at the meeting in Quito which is basically targeted to create and stimulate confidence-building measures in the region.

“We have invited all ministers and virtually all have confirmed they will be coming for the meeting next Tuesday. We hope their presence will ensure a consensus on the issues to be addressed”, said Ecuador’s Defence secretary Javier Ponce.

The Quito meeting was agreed at the latest summit of the Union of South American Nations, Unasur, held at the end of August in Bariloche, Argentina.

“We must begin with reciprocal confidence-building measures and elaborate on instruments that confirm information transparency on military strategies, military hardware and military planning” among Unasur members pointed out Ponce.

The issue was born in the Bariloche summit where the main topic of discussion was the presence of US personnel in seven Colombian military bases, which triggered strong reactions from Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia, and concern from other countries of the region among which Brazil and Argentina.

At the summit it was agreed to mandate ministers of Foreign Affairs to hold a meeting and for the Unasur Defence Council to work towards “greater transparency and designing measures to promote confidence and security in the region” according to the text of the Quito appointment.

Unasur members include Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guayana, Paraguay, Perú, Surinam, Uruguay and Venezuela.

However Ecuador’s Foreign Affaire minister Fander Falcón said that talking with Colombian peer Jaime Bermúdez is not going to be easy, particularly since both countries have relations suspended and are mistrustful of each other.

“It’s going to be complicated to establish a bilateral dialogue with Colombia in the framework of Unasur”, said Falcón. Unasur is a “multilateral space” with its own dynamics and agenda, so it “won’t be easy to establish a bilateral dialogue to try and resume normal relations with Bogotá” which have been interrupted since March 2008.

Nevertheless Falconi revealed that a bilateral meeting with Bermudez has been scheduled in New York when the coming United Nations General Assembly the last week of September.