T&T
heads Summit of Americas
The Trinidad Guardian
Port
Spain
Petroleumworldtt.com
10 01 06
T&T earlier this month assumed the presidency
of the Summit of the Americas process and will host
the fifth Summit of the Americas in 2009.
This
is the first time that a Caricom nation has held
the presidency and the first time that a Summit
of the Americas will be held in the Caribbean region.
The
transfer of the presidency from Argentina to T&T
took place on September 12 at the XLVI Ministerial
Meeting of the Summit Implementation Review Group
(SIRG) which was held at the Headquarters of the
Organisation of American States (OAS) in Washington,
DC.
The
Government was represented at the meeting by Lenny
Saith, Minister of Energy and Public Administration,
who received the symbol of the transfer of the presidency,
the Inukshuk which represents leadership, friendship
and co-operation.
Also
in attendance at the meeting were T&T’s
Ambassador to the US Marina Valère and Laura-Marie
West, national co-ordinator for the Summit Process
at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The
summits bring together the Heads of State and Government
of the Americas to discuss common concerns, seek
solutions and develop a shared vision for the future
development of the region.
Four
previous summits have been held in Florida, USA
(1994), Chile (1998), Canada (2001) and Mar del
Plata, Argentina (2005). The mandates of the summits
include a focus on:
democracy
hemispheric
security
disaster
management
sustainable
development
education
health
connectivity
labour
At
the morning’s meeting, OAS secretary general,
José Miguel Insulza congratulated T&T
on the assumption of the presidency and “encouraged
all member states to support the Government as it
embarks upon the work of the next summit.”
In
his address, Senator Dr Saith said that it was “a
special honour and privilege for T&T to receive
the full support of member states for what will
undeniably be a challenging but very rewarding undertaking.”
Minister
Saith also stated, “Our country has been an
avid proponent of this summit process since its
inception in December 1994 when the first Summit
of the Americas was held in Miami, Florida.”
“We
have sought to demonstrate our commitment to the
Summit process through, but not limited to:
our
offer to host the site of the Headquarters of the
Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA);
the
hosting of the fourth meeting of the Ministers of
Education in Tobago in August 2005; and
the
hosting of the XV Inter-American Meeting of Ministers
of Labour in September 2007 for which preparations
are proceeding apace.
“Our
nation’s developmental agenda also embraces
the pan-Caribbean region to which we are irrevocably
and solidly committed and in which the development
of T&T and Caricom is intertwined.
“However,
globalisation and advances in technology have mandated
that T&T’s developmental agenda must also
contain a Pan-Americas component reflective of its
relationship with the wider hemisphere.
“It
was, therefore, against this background that the
Prime Minister Patrick Manning took the opportunity
to offer T&T as the host of the fifth Summit
of the Americas in 2009, while attending the Mar
del Plata summit.”
The
Trinidad Guardian
Thursday 28th September 2006
Copyright
©2005-2006 Trinidad Publishing Company Limited
. All Rights Reserved.
