EURASIAN ECONOMIC UNION AND LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN: COOPERATION FOR GREATER REGIONAL INTEGRATION

Following the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding by the Permanent Secretary of the Latin American and Caribbean Economic System (SELA), Ambassador Javier Paulinich, and then Minister in charge of Integration and Macroeconomics of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), Ms. Tatiana Valovaya, in order to promote inter-institutional cooperation between both regions, the Seminar "Eurasian Economic Union and Latin America and the Caribbean: Cooperation for greater regional integration" will be held. This event is being organized by the Permanent Secretariat of the Latin American and Caribbean Economic System (SELA), together with the Government of the Republic of Guatemala through the Ministry of Economy (MINECO), the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) through the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC), the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Guatemala and the Central American Economic Integration Secretariat (SIECA), and will be held in Antigua, Guatemala, on 23 and 24 September of this year.

The main objective of this seminar is to identify opportunities and challenges for strengthening relations between Latin America and the Caribbean and the Eurasian region. For this purpose we have invited a diversity of experts and speakers from multilateral organizations, private companies, government representatives and academics to participate during two days of work sessions where we will proceed to: i) evaluate a cooperation agenda in the field of regional integration between the governments of the EAEU and Latin America and the Caribbean; ii) analyze opportunities for the formation of trade and cooperation agreements between the business community of the EAEU countries and the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean; iii) identify areas for cooperation in the field of regional economic integration among the governments of the countries of the EAEU and of Latin America and the Caribbean; iv) propose the creation of a monitoring group for economic relations between the countries that make up the EAEU and those of Latin America and the Caribbean, which monitors and promotes the formation of alliances between SMEs in both regions; and, v) present the opportunities to forge business and cooperation agreements between the MSMEs of the EAEU and those of Latin America and the Caribbean.