Ecuador seeks to unite the Andean countries at upcoming CAN meeting

Associated Press  June 3, 2006 

QUITO - The Chancellor responsible for the next regional presidential conference, to be held in Quito next week, says that Ecuador will use the meetings to seek to preserve Andean integration..

Ecuador is responsible for the harmonizing the interests of Andean people and organizing them to protect integration, explained Diego Ribadeneira, the official, through press statements that were made public on Saturday in the daily publication, "Business".
 

The presidential meeting of the Andean Community of Nations (CAN), which is made up of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and, until recently, Venezuela, will be held on June 13th in Quito.

Ribadeneira considered Ecuador to be the only country which still has the capacity to convene the Andean region, due to the "lamentable confrontations" that have happened between the other nations.

He added that the country's reconciliation capability should be "appreciated, above all, by the United States," because it demonstrates the geopolitical importance of Ecuador and the Andean region an as a whole.

At the Andean Community of Nations summit, set up by Bolivian president Evo Morales, nations will seek to overcome the crisis caused by Venezuela's "irrevocable" exit announced by president Hugo Chavez. Chavez asserted that the CAN was left seriously injured after Colombia and Peru signed free trade agreements with the United States.

A major purpose of the meeting will be to unify forces to seek an extension of the tariff benefits the United States grants to Andean countries who are committed to the struggle against drug trafficking which expire in December of 2006 (ATDPEA).

Another issue to be addressed is the possible negotiation of a commercial agreement between the CAN and the European Union.