CAN Foreign Ministers reaffirm their commitment
to deepen the Andean integration process

Lima, August 22, 2011.-  The Foreign Ministers of the Andean Community Member Countries today, in Lima, at a joint Meeting of the Andean Council of Foreign Ministers and the CAN Commission, reaffirmed their commitment to deepen Andean integration and launched the reengineering of the Andean Integration System (SAI). 

Colombia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, María Ángela Holguín Cuéllar, who chaired the meeting, declared that the four Andean countries clearly understand that the Andean Community needs to be revitalized and to reacquire the vitality it had shown in past decades.

Ricardo Patiño Aroca, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Integration of Ecuador, for his part, stated that the reengineering of the CAN is important, for it can make us more efficient and able to attain larger objectives using the same resources.   He drew attention to the need to build up integration by taking measures like our electrical interconnection, which allows us to offer multilateral solutions to what we had earlier addressed bilaterally.   

The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Worship of Bolivia, David Choquehuanca Céspedes, congratulated the Colombian Foreign Minister on assuming the Presidency Pro-Tempore of the CAN and for having rapidly called this First Meeting of Foreign Ministers, thereby consolidating the spirit of integration.  “We know that integration is the only course we can take to strengthen our nations and that, for that reason, we must make adjustments so that, with the participation of our peoples, we can build a more comprehensive and advanced integration,” he stressed.   

Elizabeth Astete, the Director of Integration of Peru’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, underscored the importance of the serious thought that has been given to how to strengthen the Andean integration process and to make it more efficient and of the approval by this meeting of Community regulations on issues of special interest to our countries, such those on peoples of African descent and on the Ministers of Culture.   

The acting Secretary General of the Andean Community, Adalid Contreras Baspineiro, stressed the continuity and deepening of the subregional integration process, which starts with the Strategic Agenda, continues with the Implementation Plan and is now developing with the adjustment of the SAI’s institutional structure. 

Seven Community Decisions were approved during the meeting of the Andean Council of Foreign Ministers; these ordered the establishment of the Working Committee on Peoples of African Descent in the Andean Community, thus extending the right to this population sector to participate as citizens, and the creation of the Andean Council of Ministers of Culture and Cultures, so that it can take charge of recommending, formulating, defining and following up on Andean cultural policies. 

The Ministers also granted the kingdom of Spain the status of Andean Community Observer, thus empowering this country to participate with a right to be heard at meetings of Andean Community bodies and to promote joint programs and activities.   

They also approved the Andean Strategy for the Integrated Management of Water Resources and the implementation of the project “Program of Adaptation to Climate Change in the Andean Region” in the agricultural sector, with emphasis on the small producers.   The Andean Strategy to Improve the Effectiveness of International Development Cooperation was likewise approved, in order to strengthen the management and coordination of that cooperation.