Ambassador Jorge Taiana, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of Argentina and Chair of the Summit Implementation Review Group,

National Summit Coordinators and representatives of member states,

Representatives from international and regional organizations,

Ladies and Gentlemen,


As you have full agenda ahead of you and as I am aware that you will need all the time available to you to continue the discussions on the Declaration of Mar de Plata, I will be brief this morning.

I do feel the need to share some thoughts with you as our host country Argentina, the OAS member states and the inter-american institutions and international organizations, as well as the private sector and the civil society are continuing their engagement in this process.

Since the beginning of this week we have had meetings with all mentioned stakeholders and today the Governments will continue their dialogue on the Summit documents. I want to take this opportunity to congratulate the Government of Argentina, in the particular the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for this inclusive approach in the preparations for the Summit.

We are approaching the final stages in the preparations for the 4th Summit of the Americas, an initiative that, despite the ups and downs, has to be recognized as an important effort at the highest political level and that contains the possibility of achieving great things. Without wanting to overstate the expectations of this process, I believe that we should keep this always in mind.

The Summit of the Americas in early November will take place in a different political and social environment than previous ones.

Many countries in the Americas are facing challenges in terms of democratic governability and security, indeed not the best environment to attract investment or focus on developmental needs. At the same time poverty, social injustice and inequality, transnational organized crime and HIV/Aids, among other challenges, remain serious obstacles for growth and prosperity for many in the hemisphere.

Add to this the impact of global trends of trading arrangements, the interesting political dynamics between member states and the socio-economic impact of the annual occurrence of natural disasters in developing and developed countries in the Western Hemisphere, then we must conclude that the next Summit of the Americas provides an unique and excellent opportunity to demonstrate unity, solidarity and commitment to the developmental needs of the People of the Americas, with indeed, as proposed by the Government of Argentina, a strong focus on “Creating Jobs to Fight Poverty and Strengthen Democratic Governance”.

I believe that this is the kind of spirit of solidarity and unity that should prevail and which we need to advocate in our committed and collective efforts towards the 4th Summit of the Americas.

At the same time I fully recognize that many of the countries here represented today have to deal with the immediate problems emanating from the domestic challenges and from the impact of natural disasters, such as the one that caused so much damage and loss of lives in the United States.

We must therefore recognize and salute the on-going commitment of these countries and take stock of the specific needs in the different sub-regions in the hemisphere and prioritize accordingly, and work towards a mechanism to effectively address them with dedicated funding. As I said yesterday, I believe that the sub-regional development banks have an important role to play in this regard, as well as of course the international financial institutions.

While we are aware that much more needs to be done, we must also realize that much is already being done by multilateral institutions in the Western Hemisphere.

The OAS will continue to work towards enhanced cooperation and coordination between the partner institutions, but, in my view, it is equally important that at the national level the Summit mandates are communicated to the substantive ministeries and subsequently translated in the national developmental programs and budgets.

The Summit process has directed in many ways the OAS agenda and reoriented the inter-american system. What we need to demonstrate to the people of the Americas is that political will and commitment can materialize in real benefits and that what we all do individually and together in the implementation of Summit mandates seriously contribute to the improvement of their lives and their communities. Our real challenge and task therefore is to formulate language that creates trust and confidence and that results in concrete actions, and that is not considered rhetoric.

I thank you.