MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Unasur Montevideo summit planned for next week, suspended until October

At the summit Surinam will hand over the pro tempore presidency to Uruguay and Ernesto Samper is to be confirmed as next Secretary General

A planned presidential summit between the heads of state of the Union of South American Nations (Unasur) has been suspended due to scheduling conflicts amongst member countries, according to the Uruguayan Foreign Ministry.

The meeting, originally planned for next week, will now take place in October, when Surinam hands over the pro tempore presidency of the institution to Uruguay in Montevideo.

“It is not unknown for this to happen,” officials told reporters in Uruguay as they confirmed the summit would be postponed. According to President José Mujica's executive office the challenges of coordinating activities for 22 heads of state accounted for the rescheduling.

Uruguay had planned to propose a debate over the situation in Gaza. Foreign minister Luis Almagro asserted that “it would be great to have regional consensus over the issue... Unasur has never underlined its commitment to tackle the biggest political issues on the international agenda”.

The summit was expected to begin on August 18 with meetings between technicians and consultants. The key dates were August 21 and 22, when the presidents of the bloc were to discuss an extensive list of activities.

Another significant issue to addressed at the summit was the approval of former Colombian president Ernesto Samper as the next Secretary General of Unasur. He is scheduled to replace Venezuela's Ali Rodríguez.

Despite the suspension Uruguay has yet to confirm if the previous technical meetings have also been rescheduled . Likewise it is not clear what will happen with the announced visit of Chilean president Michelle Bachelet that was to coincide with the Unasur summit.