Lima, March 23, 2007.- Enrique Iglesias, Secretary General of the Secretariat for Iberoamerican Cooperation (SECIB), and the Secretary General of the Andean Community (CAN), Freddy Ehlers, today, in Lima, drew attention to the points of agreement in the Andean and Iberoamerican agendas and explored possibilities for joint efforts on matters of common interest.   

The two Secretary Generals met today at a working meeting during Enrique Iglesias’ visit to the General Secretariat in Lima and beforehand participated actively in a special session attended by directors and officials of the executive integration body.   

Enrique Iglesias explained that the reason for his visit to the CAN General Secretariat was, in addition to greeting the new authorities, to explore with them actions for joint cooperation in meeting new challenges and pursuing matters of common interest.  "We in the Secretariat for Iberoamerican Cooperation (SECIB) want to work with organizations like the Andean Community.  We want them to support us and we want to see how we can support them,” he pointed out. 

Following a wide-ranging dialogue, Enrique Iglesias invited the CAN Secretary General to visit SECIB headquarters in Madrid to sign a cooperation agreement between the two institutions that, in principle, would cover joint actions in the areas of environment and climate change, social cohesion and migration, indigenous peoples, and culture and communication. 

Freddy Ehlers, for his part, after thanking the SECIB Secretary General for his invitation, drew attention to the points of agreement in the Andean and Iberoamerican agendas and expressed his certainty that the joint efforts would contribute strongly to the actions of the Andean Community General Secretariat. 

He also stressed the support given to the Andean organization in the past by Enrique Iglesias, from his position as President of the IDB, for consolidating trade negotiation and agricultural diversity projects.  

The Director of the CAN General Secretariat, Ana María Tenenbaum de Reátegui, closed the meeting and the special session by conferring on Enrique Iglesias an award symbolic of Andean citizenship.