Third Summit of the Americas Set for April 2001

The Summit will bring together the 34 democratically-elected heads of state and government from North, Central and South America and the Caribbean. Leaders will address common hemispheric challenges, including economic integration, improved access to education, poverty alleviation, enhanced respect for human rights and democratic development. Canada was chosen to host the Summit at the 1998 Summit of the Americas in Santiago, Chile.

"During the past ten years, the spread of democracy and free markets has transformed the Americas and we are proud to host the first major gathering of the Americas in the new millennium," said the Prime Minister. "At the Canadian Summit we will work together to continue fulfilling our vision of shared hemispheric prosperity and progress. A vision that includes a Free Trade Area of the Americas, the consolidation of democracy, the promotion and protection of human rights and the rule of law, and the alleviation of social inequity."

The Summit will mark the culmination of a period in which Canada has strongly reaffirmed its identity as a nation of the Americas and as a busy crossroad for our hemispheric friends and neighbours. The Prime Minister led a trade mission to Latin America in 1995, and Team Canada visited Mexico, Brazil,Chile and Argentina in 1998. Canada hosted the Pan American Games in Winnipeg last summer, the Conference of Spouses of Heads of State and Government of the Americas in Ottawa in September, as well as the Americas Business Forum and the Free Trade Area of the Americas meeting of trade ministers in Toronto last month. And we will also host foreign ministers from the hemisphere at the 30th General Assembly of the Organization of American States in Windsor in June 2000.

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