Latest update November 29th, 2024 1:00 AM
Rohee says security plan in place to assure “safe” UNASUR meeting
… Guyana to give Lula highest national award
Home Affairs Minister, Clement Rohee, yesterday assured that a security plan drafted for Guyana’s hosting of the UNASUR meeting, which gets underway today, would ensure a “safe” event.
The Fourth UNASUR Summit includes a meeting of national delegations of each of the signatory countries today and Wednesday. This will be followed by a meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs on Thursday. Guyana will accept the Presidency on Friday, the day the Heads of State meet.
Carolyn Rodrigues-Brikette
Yesterday, Minister Rohee, along with Police Commissioner Henry Green and Colonel Bruce Lovell briefed the diplomatic community on the security plan for the meeting.
Rohee expressed confidence that the security plan in place would ensure that that event is the safe, secure, enjoyable and memorable.
Foreign Minister, Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, last evening confirmed that the Presidents of all South American nations except Peru, Bolivia, Uruguay and Chile, would be attending the meeting. Peru, Bolivia, Uruguay and Chile would be represented by their Foreign Affairs Ministers, she said.
Apart from the Heads of State, Minister Rodrigues-Birkette told Kaieteur News that over 150 delegates are expected for the meeting.
In helping to craft the agenda for the meeting, Rodrigues-Birkett said that Guyana proposed the discussion of climate change, since the meeting comes just ahead of the 16th Meeting of the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Convention on Climate Change, which begins in Cancun, Mexico on November 29.
In addition, she said that the Heads would be looking to approve a “democracy clause” to the treaty establishing UNASUR to underscore that fact that the community is committed to democratic rule only.
This springs from the unrest in Ecuador late September/early October this year, which nearly toppled Rafael Correa’s government.
Correa, who faces stinging criticism over his policies and leadership style, will hand over the UNASUR Presidency to President Bharrat Jagdeo on Friday.
Rodrigues-Birkett also told Kaieteur News that the foreign ministers and UNASUR leaders are also expected to fine-tune plans for the establishment of a permanent UNASUR Secretariat in Ecuador. Those discussions could include a replacement for the post of Secretary General of UNASUR, following the death of former Argentine President, Nestor Kirchner who was the first person to hold the post.
Outgoing President of Brazil, Lula Da Silva, is to be presented with Guyana’s highest national award – the Order of Excellence, Rodrigues-Birkett confirmed. Lula will become the third non-Guyanese to receive the Order of Excellence.
The others were former US President Jimmy Carter (1993) and former Jamaica Prime Minister P.J. Patterson.
The award is given for “distinction and eminence in any field of endeavour of national or international importance.”
Lula is scheduled to arrive in the country earlier than the other heads of state, most of whom are expected to fly in Friday morning.
The summit will be held at the Guyana International Conference Centre (GICC) at Liliendaal, East Coast Demerara. A cultural presentation will be staged at the National Cultural Centre in Georgetown and a state dinner is slated for State House.
Outgoing Brazilian President Lula DaSilva
The government has been sprucing up the environment around Georgetown, the East Coast corridor leading to the Convention Centre, as well as East Bank Demerara, ahead of the meeting. UNASUR, an intergovernmental union integrating two existing customs unions: MERCOSUR (Common Market of the South) and the Andean Community of Nations was established on May 23, 2008 when Constitutive Treaty was signed by the presidents of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela, during the third Summit of Heads of State in Brasilia, Brazil.
UNASUR is intended to promote integration among South American countries. The rotating presidency of UNASUR is held for one year.
The Ecuadorean Foreign Affairs Ministry which holds the “pro tempore” presidency of UNASUR, recently said that with the ratification by Suriname, UNASUR now has eight members that have consolidated the ambitious political and defense initiative.
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