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Prime Minister to participate in Fourth Summit of the Americas in Mar del Plata, Argentina
October 27, 2005
Ottawa, Ontario
NEWS RELEASE
Prime Minister Paul Martin today announced that he will attend the Fourth Summit of the Americas taking place from November 4 to 5, 2005, in Mar del Plata, Argentina. He will join 33 other democratically elected leaders of the hemisphere to help advance a balanced agenda of democracy, prosperity and social progress in the Americas.
“I intend to underline with the summit leaders Canada’s strong conviction that democracy is the foundation of all economic growth and social development,” said the Prime Minister. “It is only through democracy and good governance that we can reduce poverty, build a country’s prosperity and create jobs.”
“Democracy is strengthened by the full and transparent participation of all sectors of society including women, indigenous peoples and civil society. For that reason, I look forward to the outcomes of the Indigenous Peoples Summit, which Canada has been pleased to support.”
In the case of Haiti, there has been an unprecedented engagement of the countries of the hemisphere to support democracy, security and development. Throughout the hemisphere, institutions such as the Organization of American States and the Inter-American Development Bank play a key role in promoting democratic governance at the local and regional levels.
“In Mar del Plata we must reaffirm our support for these efforts on Haiti,” said the Prime Minister.
Regional and international collaboration is the imperative for a new multilateralism in which developed and developing countries with common interests work together to deal with urgent challenges, such as avian flu and climate change, that no one nation can overcome alone.
The Summit is the only leaders’ forum in which Canada engages with the democratically elected leaders in the hemisphere to discuss the pressing economic, social and political challenges facing the region.
Canada was the host of the Third Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in 2001. This summit broke new ground in international cooperation. Leaders approved a Democracy Clause, which led to the adoption of the Inter-American Democratic Charter. They developed a balanced agenda to strengthen democracy, create prosperity and realize human potential. Summit leaders also renewed their countries’ commitment to a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).
The Summit of the Americas process was initiated in 1994 in Miami to discuss economic integration. Additional summits took place in 1998 in Santiago, Chile, and in 2001 in Quebec City. The 2004 Special Summit of the Americas held in Monterrey, Mexico, focused on corruption and reaffirmed the leaders’ commitment to the FTAA.
Prime Minister Martin will be accompanied by Minister of Foreign Affairs Pierre Pettigrew and several parliamentarians. While in Mar del Plata, Prime Minister Martin and Minister Pettigrew will also have bilateral meetings with their hemispheric counterparts.
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