CELAC Holds First Meeting of Triumvirate Countries, Designates Priorities

Mérida, January 13^th 2012 (Venezuelanalysis.com) – The CELAC triumvirate countries Chile, Cuba and Venezuela have decided this week that energy, science and technology, infrastructure, finance and social development will be the five key areas for building the new regional organisation, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).

The CELAC was founded at a historic summit in Caracas in December last year and counts with the membership of 33 Latin American and Caribbean states, while excluding the United States and Canada.  The members of the triumvirate were established at the founding summit in order to develop the organisation’s priorities and projects on behalf of the CELAC.

Agreements relating to the five key areas were reached on Monday this week in the Chilean capital Santiago de Chile, where the first meeting between the foreign ministers of the triumvirate countries was held. Other areas for joint cooperation will include culture, the environment, and humanitarian support in the region.

Venezuelan foreign minister Nicolas Maduro commented that “we are united in diversity and we have learned how to respect each other, and so it should continue, so that soon we will be a region that is viewed in the world with more respect, more strength, and we can insert ourselves in the economic, cultural and political spheres of this increasingly changing world”.

Venezuela will be responsible for developing proposals in the area of social development, while Chile will work on the other four areas. Chile’s president Sebastian Piñera currently holds the pro-tempore presidency of the CELAC.

Finally, Cuban foreign minister Bruno Rodriguez stressed that the CELAC would seek to implement development projects and increase social inclusion, highlighting that despite advantages of population, talent, and natural resources, Latin American still has the world’s most unequal distribution of wealth.

The triumvirate representatives explained that all of the decisions taken at the meeting will be put to the rest of the CELAC membership for discussion.