Lima, July 25, 2007.- Last night Peru’s Foreign Minister, José Antonio García Belaunde,  pointed up “the talent and capacity of the Andean integration process to adjust progressively to the new circumstances and new challenges” it has had to confront over its thirty-eight year life.   

During his address last night at the formal session held in the Convent of San Francisco in Lima, the key event commemorating the “Celebration of Andean Integration: Bolívar and San Martín", García Belaunde explained that integration processes are not linear, that they reach very high peaks, but by the same token also drop to very low levels and that “only its strong determination to persevere has enabled our process to remain effective and vigorous.”  

After describing the evolution of Andean integration over its thirty-eight year life, the Peruvian Foreign Minister stated that the new challenges it must meet are, first, to be tolerant in recognizing that our approaches to economic and trade matters differ; second, to put new life into our foreign projection: into our negotiations with the European Union and with the South American Community; and third, to be creative and steadfast in implementing the new topics on our agenda.

García Belaunde expressed his full assurance that the Andean integration process will, once again, know how to meet these new challenges appropriately.  “I believe the institution has the energy and the countries and their governments the political will to find and offer the proper responses to the changes and challenges of the times,” he stated emphatically. 

Andean Community Secretary General, Freddy Ehlers, for his part, underscored the importance of “creating a development model that will be sustainable, that will enable mankind to live in harmony with nature,” and reported that the Andean Community today is furthering an integration that is comprehensive, that goes beyond trade matters to the integral development of mankind and society.    

"We have been working in recent months to find ways for the Andean countries, despite their different visions, to move together into the future.  And although many thought this would not be possible, the progress we have made toward reaching an Association Agreement with the EU has disproved this,” he pointed out.   

Ehlers went on to stress the burgeoning vitality of the Andean Community’s foreign relations, as shown in Chile’s return to the CAN as an Associated Member, the Association’s closer ties with Mexico and Panama, and the new emphasis placed on its relations with a world power, the People’s Republic of China, through the revival of the Andean Community – China Consultation Mechanism scheduled for the second half of 2007.