“Migrations for shared development” will be the motto of the sixteenth Ibero-American Summit, as approved during the first preparatory meeting that concluded yesterday in Punta del Este, Uruguay.
Delegates from the 22 countries that make up the Ibero-American Community (all of Latin America plus Spain and Portugal) met for two days to establish the bases of the issues to be discussed and eventually approved at the XVI Summit, to be held in Montevideo between November 4 and 5 .
The central theme was ‘migration’, and given the importance that all the delegations gave it, the ‘pro tempore’ presidency, exercised by Uruguay, decided to choose it as the backbone of the next Summit.
Bruno Faraone , general director of Political Affairs of the Uruguayan Foreign Ministry, general coordinator of the Uruguayan delegation and president of the meeting, explained that the topic was chosen despite the fact that “there is no consensus” on all its derivations.
“It is a first stage, there are different views on some aspects, but we are combining criteria,” he added.
Faraone explained that the issue is “very vast,” so there are many points still to be polished, and although he did not want to delve into the dissenting aspects, he pointed out some of those that had been discussed.
These include the rights of immigrants, outbreaks of xenophobia in some host countries, trafficking in women and human trafficking, labor rights and solutions to the problem of the undocumented.
Uruguay intends that these disagreements dissipate in the months that remain until the Summit, in which there will be postal exchanges until the next meeting, which will be held in Uruguay in the first days of September.
On the other hand, the delegates – national coordinators and cooperation secretaries – listened to and approved the first report provided by the Ibero-American General Secretariat ( SEGIB ), which was born at the previous Salamanca Summit.
Its head, the Uruguayan Enrique Iglesias , presented a balance of what was done during the first months of management and the report “was approved and congratulated” by the delegates, according to Faraone.
An opinion shared by the general director of foreign policy for Latin America of Spain, Javier San Domingo : “there has been a consensus that remarkable work has been done, much progress has been made, and it has been asked to continue in that line.”
Both diplomats agreed that the report was very extensive and covered many topics, especially the mandate to position the Community in the world, but they did not want to delve into it.
Likewise, today the delegates discussed the general lines that should mark the work of the general secretariat during the period 2007-2010, but their content did not transcend either.
These objectives must be ready before the next Summit to be approved by the Heads of State or Government of the 22 countries of the Community.
