:quality(75)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/elcomercio/FR76EQQMPNEKTNYFJ4JJZE2NAY.jpg "Mexico confirms that the Pacific Alliance summit will now be in Peru")
The summit of presidents of the Pacific Alliancebetween Mexico, Chile, Colombia and Peru, will be held in Lima, the Peruvian capital, after being suspended in Mexico due to the absence of Peruvian Pedro Castillo and in the midst of its “accelerated expansion” with the process of adding six countries.
In a press conference after the ministerial meeting of the Pacific Alliance, the Mexican foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrardconfirmed the meeting for Mexico to cede the pro tempore presidency to Peru in that country, although he said that the date will be announced next week.
LOOK: AMLO receives Boric, Lasso and Petro after suspending the Pacific Alliance summit due to Castillo’s absence
“My first words are to thank the deference of the President of the United Mexican States, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, for postponing the presidential summit that should have been held on Friday in Lima, at an early date, since President Castillo was not authorized to come”, expressed César Landa, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Peru.
The head of Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also reported on the upcoming addition of six new members to the Pacific Alliance, which emerged in 2011 as an economic and development initiative between Mexico, Mexico, Chile, Colombia and Peru.
The new members will be Costa Rica, Ecuador, Canada, South Korea, Singapore and Honduras, which submitted its formal application on this day.
“To ratify Honduras’ interest in being part of this important integration alliance, not only economic, but also in economic development on issues for the social future of our peoples,” said Honduran Foreign Minister Enrique Reinara.
Ebrard explained that in the case of Singapore, its ratification has to go through the approval of Congress.
He said that Canada is resuming its path to become an associated State, while he pointed out that Mexico will have to sign a free trade agreement with South Korea in order to carry out its accession, as one of the requirements of the Alliance.
“An essential requirement is that there are free trade agreements with all countries, so these are processes that may take longer. Hard to tell right now,” she commented.
Regarding Costa Rica, he said that he has already submitted his request and is about to start the negotiation process.
“The times for this are yet to be determined, in the coming weeks they have to begin the process that would conclude with their belonging as a member state of the Pacific Alliance,” added the Mexican foreign minister.
THE ALLIANCE WORKS, EXPANSION ACCELERATED
The Mexican foreign minister asserted that the Pacific Alliance “works” and welcomed the fact that this commercial and development initiative has “accelerated expansion.”
“The alliances that do not work do not have applications for membership (…) there is an accelerated expansion of the Pacific Alliance. It is a success, ”she emphasized.
In a previous meeting, the Council of Ministers of the Pacific Alliance also approved five declarations on gender parity, protection of jungles and forests in the region, for well-being, youth and to make an effort to recover plastics in the sea with private sector participation.
Source: Elcomercio
I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.
