By Humberto Márquez, IPS
Porlamar, Venezuela — South American and African leaders are meeting over the weekend on the Caribbean island of Margarita in their second summit in three years, to forge stronger cooperation between the two regions and discuss their positions with regard to a number of pressing international concerns.
More than 20 heads of state and government and high-level officials from around 60 nations are meeting in the South-South summit to “approve a declaration that announces a multipolar world and salvages and safeguards our cultures and identities,” said host President Hugo Chávez.
But above and beyond the final declaration, “the success of the summit will be measured by the follow-up on the binational and suregional cooperation accords that are established, which can be assessed at the next summit, in 2011,” said Venezuela’s deputy foreign minister for Africa, Reinaldo Bolívar.
And apart from the strength of the declaration or its effective implementation, just the fact that the South America-Africa summit is taking place is a sign of renewed interest in South-South cooperation, at the end of a week of high-profile international summits.
A summit on climate change was held in New York and addressed by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon immediately ahead of the 64th United Nations General Assembly, which was followed by the G20 summit of major emerging and developed economies in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
The first to arrive at Isla Margarita were Presidents Mamadou Tandja of Niger and Tabaré Vázquez of Uruguay. But the spotlight was hogged by Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi, current chair of the African Union, on his first visit to Latin America.
In New York, Gaddafi was not allowed to set up his traditional Bedouin-style tent. But he has been permitted to do on the grounds of the Hilton Hotel on Isla Margarita.
A source with the summit organisers said Gaddafi would not actually sleep in the tent, but would stay in a hotel room, while several of his advisers and officials would occupy the tent.