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| Caribbean-Latin America |
| Arabs and Latins Cozy Up, Issue Anti US & Israel Resolution..... |
| 2005-05-13 |
| The first summit of Latin American and Arab states has ended in Brazil with a vow to work together to promote economic The two-day meeting brought together leaders and representatives of 34 countries from Latin America, north Africa and the Middle East. Its closing declaration included criticism of Israel and the US. Wotta surprise. The countries pledged to jointly seek reform of international trade, seen by many as favouring Overtly political statements in the closing declaration included a call on Israel to dismantle settlements in the occupied territories and to withdraw to its pre-1967 borders. I am sure that will jump start the Ecuadorian economy. The leaders expressed deep concern about the imposition of sanctions on Syria by the US. They declared that US policy violated international law. I'm sure Syria's occupation of Lebanon violated international law, too... There was a call, too, for the elimination of farm subsidies through the World Trade Organization and for reform of the United Nations. Not bad ideas, but I don't think they mean quite the same things as what most RB'ers would mean by those statements. Brazil and Egypt are among the countries seeking a permanent seats on the Security Council. Why not? They're pretty ineffective, and so is the Security Council. It could work. Finally, the summit approved a resolution by Argentina criticising the European Union's constitutional treaty. It lists the Falkland Islands in the south Atlantic as a British overseas territory but Argentina disputes the islands' sovereignty. "Yeah! Just 'cause they whupped our ass without trying very hard, that doesn't mean it's settled!" |
| Posted by:Desert Blondie |
| #4 Another blogger (can't remember who, sorry, will post link if I do) was assessing this summit. Only 7 of 22 invited heads of Arab states attended, and one of those was a Kurd (Talabani, heh.) There was a moderate amount of friction between los Americanos and the Arabs, primarily because they had differing agendas. The Arabs wanted to denounce Israel and whinge about the Paleos, the Western Hemisphereans were really only interested in economics. As you can see by the statement, they compromised, but apparently not happily. |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2005-05-13 13:56 |
| #3 oh. and they said it was going to be a "nonpolitical" meeting...simply to explore mutual economic interests. Then they told me Chavez gave a ranting, paranoid speech (as he always does these days). I know it railed against US imperialism and Bush, not sure about the other stuff he talked about. So, since this was supposed to be nonpolitical, I asked how the delegates reacted. They said he got a standing ovation. From everyone. |
| Posted by: PlanetDan 2005-05-13 13:44 |
| #2 I happened to be in brazil this past week. flying back last night, I encountered two journalists who covered the conference. They worked for No surprise here. |
| Posted by: PlanetDan 2005-05-13 13:40 |
| #1 This has boondoggle written all over it. "Hey guys, who's up for a free trip to Rio?" |
| Posted by: Matt 2005-05-13 08:20 |