MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Food security tops Brazil-Caribbean Summit agenda

The event is starting Friday in Brasilia, with many issues at stake, Padovan explained

The Brazil-Caribbean Summit, set for June 13 in Brasilia, will focus on five key areas for a final document: food and nutrition security, climate change, energy transition, risk management, and connectivity, a high-ranking official from Brazil's Foreign Ministry confirmed Monday.

Ambassador Gisela Padovan -Secretary for Latin America and the Caribbean- highlighted her country's capacity to produce food for 1.6 billion people and the potential for enhanced trade and cooperation with Caribbean nations.

So far, the attendance of eight heads of state (presidents) and six heads of government (prime ministers) has been confirmed. Vice-presidents are also expected to attend, as well as authorities from international organizations and countries in the region.

The diplomat recalled that the agenda of integration between the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean is a priority for the Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva government, since, in strategic terms, the Brazilian president has always defended the idea that, in isolation, no country will be able to solve its problems.

“We need to get closer to unite. The representativeness [of the region's countries] in the world depends on the solidity of the regional base and the coordination of positions,” Padovan argued while speaking at the Itamaraty Palace about how the five priority themes will be addressed in the final document.

The expectation is that, by bringing the nations closer together, progress will be made even from a commercial point of view, since this is a market of 40 million people spread across small countries.

Regarding food security, Padovan insisted that, during previous meetings, with a population of just over 200 million people, Brazil can produce food for around 1.6 billion people.

“They said that they buy a lot of Brazilian food, but that, due to the lack of [port trade] routes, this food first goes to the United States [before reaching its final destination]. Even for tourism, you have to go to Miami first,” she said, pointing out that the five priority issues can be discussed together.

For the diplomat, Brazil has a lot to collaborate with other nations through cooperation involving the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) and the National Supply Company (Conab).

On the subject of climate change, Padovan noted that the idea is to present a unified position among the countries of the region, including taking into account the effects of rising sea levels on nations and islands in the Caribbean. “The energy transition is also related to climate change,” she said, while linking the two topics to disaster risk management, presently consisting of six mechanisms. “The idea now is to link these six mechanisms to exchange information,” she said.

Connectivity addresses not only infrastructure issues to access ports by land and sea, but also to expand air connections, increasing the number of flights between countries in the region, and even favoring sectors such as tourism.

“At this point, we are paying particular attention to the so-called Route 1 integration, which provides for a [land] connection between Roraima and Georgetown, the capital of Guyana,” Padovan pointed out, “so that we can sell to the Caribbean without going through the United States”. A similar connection via Suriname is also expected shortly.

Another key issue will be the “dramatic situation in various aspects that Haiti is going through.” She said that Brazil has provided aid in areas such as security and construction, passing on much of its expertise in these sectors. She emphasized that Haitian security professionals were being trained through partnerships with the Brazilian Federal Police. “We will have a technical meeting of the summit to find ways to help this country, which is so important for the region,” the ambassador concluded. (Source: Agencia Brasil)