MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

The Pacific Alliance will hold its virtual presidential summit in Chile, next week

The president of Chile, Sebastian Piñera, will pass the pro tempore presidency of the Alliance to Colombia's Ivan Duque, the only president travelling to Santiago

The 15th Presidential Summit of the Pacific Alliance, a bloc made up of Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, will be held on December 11th in Santiago de Chile, albeit via videoconference due to Covid-19.

During the meeting, the president of Chile, Sebastian Piñera, will pass the pro tempore presidency of the Alliance to his Colombian counterpart, Ivan Duque, who will be the only president travelling to Santiago to take the post.

According to the program, the High Level Group, made up of the vice ministers of Foreign Relations and Foreign Trade of the bloc, will meet on Wednesday 9th, and the Meeting of the Council of Ministers will convene the following day, with the respective ministers, headed by the Foreign Minister of Chile, Andres Allamand.

At the same time, there will be meetings of the Inter-Parliamentary Monitoring Commission of the Pacific Alliance, and a Business Summit.

The Pacific Alliance, was created in 2011 by the aforementioned countries, seeks to build an area of integration to advance the free movement of goods, services, capital, people and boost the economy among member countries.

It also aims to boost economic growth and competitiveness and project itself with greater emphasis on economic and commercial integration in the Asia-Pacific region.

Chile assumed the pro tempore presidency of the Alliance on July 6th, 2019 at the Summit of Presidents held in Lima, Peru, and due to the pandemic, the members decided to exceptionally extend it until December 2020.

During this time member countries launched an Alliance Work Plan against Covid-19 to respond to the health crisis, as well as tools to address the Fourth Industrial Revolution, a strategy for the Regional Digital Market that will enable the free flow of goods and services sold over the internet.