ALADI SECRETARY GENERAL URGES EFFORTS TO STRENGTHEN CELAC

Montevideo, January 13 (Xinhua)- Latin American Association of Integration (ALADI) Secretary General Carlos Alvarez urged efforts to strengthen and consolidate the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) on the occasion of the upcoming CELAC Summit.

Alvarez expressed his confidence that the CELAC Summit, which is to be held in Havana, Cuba, on Jan. 28-29, "encourages to reaffirm and insist in the strategic and decisive importance" of the bloc.

"To build Latin America and the Caribbean as a community for the present and the future, and as a crucial role in a world shaped by blocs, is a major challenge," Alvarez said in a statement issued by ALADI in Montevideo.

Alvarez said that to meet the challenge, it is necessary to "build bridges" between the different subregions and countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.

In view of the current world's geopolitical landscape, Alvarez praised "the imagination and the tenacity of Latin America and the Caribbean to build a common space”.

"The global interdependence, far from dissolving our identity, challenges us to clearly design our singularity, based on strategic patience and sense of belonging," said Alvarez.

The ALADI chief said the region has to defend before "the uncertainties of an uncontrolled globalization, to praise the community value of our countries' great riches”.

For this, said Alvarez, "we need to reaffirm the CELAC project and coordinate the efforts of the subregional organizations, by updating and renewing the institutional architecture that has been build since 50 years ago in Latin America and the Caribbean”.

ALADI was created in 1980 with the signature of the Montevideo Treaty by Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela. In 1999, Cuba was incorporated while Panama became its member in 2012.

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