Trinidad and Tobago PM Patrick Manning signs 'adopted' document to end the Fifth Summit of the Americas on Sunday.

By Peter Richards

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC - The Fifth Summit of the Americas ended here on Sunday with hemispheric leaders failing to agree on the “Declaration of Port of Spain” that would have provided a blueprint for the future socio-economic development of the Americas, Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister Patrick Manning has said.

 

“The declaration itself did not have the approval of all 34 countries. Some countries had reservations about some elements of it and that is understandable because it is very difficult with 34 countries meeting and negotiating positions,” Manning said.

 

Prior to the summit, the member countries of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of Our Americas (ALBA), led by Venezuela and which also includes Nicaragua and Bolivia, had vowed not to sign the “Declaration of Port of Spain” in solidarity with Cuba that has not been invited to neither this nor previous summits.

 

Addressing the closing ceremony, Manning, the host of the three-day event, said that the declaration, which had been negotiated ahead of the April 17-19 forum, did not “really reflect” the changing global and political and social environment characterised by the international financial crisis.

 

The summit organisers had said that the Declaration of Port of Spain was an attempt to define a renewed hemispheric cooperation agenda for sustainable development in the Americas and to address the main themes of the summit “Human Prosperity, Energy Security and Environmental Sustainability”.

 

“The Declaration of Port of Spain therefore does not fully reflect that because of the time it was negotiated,” Manning said, noting that the negotiations for the declaration had ended before the recent G-20 Summit in London had taken place.

 

“Our deliberations took that into account and came to additional conclusion that we were concerned about the allocation of resources to development institutions, particularly the Inter-American Development Bank.
 

“We expressed the view that we thought that the Western Hemisphere countries should not be disadvantaged as a consequence of an improper allocation of finances to the IDB and that the time was most appropriate and opportune to recapitalise the Inter American Development Bank,” Manning said.

 

Speaking at a news conference later, the Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister reiterated that there were “many countries” that did not agree to the Declaration of Port of Spain but said the meeting chose to have the document adopted.

 

“We adopted the document today at the retreat, which meant there was not unanimity, but there was consensus on the matter and the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago as chairman of the conference was authorised to sign the document on behalf of all his colleagues and which I was happy to do,” he said.

 

Manning said that the retreat by the leaders on Sunday also discussed the question of Haiti. He said President Rene Preval had put forward several proposals for consideration with a view to improving the social and economic lives of people of one of the poorest nations in the world.

 

“None of us could rest comfortably in the knowledge that such a situation rests on our doorsteps and therefore there was a general spirit of commitment and cooperation in doing something about Haiti.

 

“A particular proposal was made and we agreed to study it and it has to do with funding of a particular kind of programme in Haiti and we agreed that the matter should be taken up at the Organisation of American States (OAS) and we could do so as early as the first of June, when the OAS meets,” he said.

 

Overall, Manning said he was “extremely pleased” with the outcome of the three-day meeting, which was described by other officials, including the United States President Barack Obama as "very productive".
 
The Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the success of the deliberations had confounded critics who had anticipated a battle between member states.

 

“I think the remarkable thing about the summit was the failure to fulfil expectations of great confrontation here. We all came here I think believing that we would have quite a battle among the radically different perspectives that do exist on certain subjects,” Harper said.

 

“That did not materialise, we saw the replacement of confrontation with dialogue, not a dialogue that lacked disagreement or robust discussion but a dialogue that was genuine and a chemistry among leaders and in particular among the main protagonist (and) that was very good.”

 

He said this environment coming at a time of a difficult economic situation promised much for the future and outlined three reasons for the warm relations among the leaders at the summit.

 

Harper referred to the address by the US President at the start of the meeting, in which he outlined the perspectives and new approach by Washington, and the reciprocation by other leaders, including members of the ALBA “who have the most divergent views from any of us” during the conference.

 

The Canadian Prime Minister said the involvement of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders in the discussions served “as a tremendous voice of reason and of openness at those times when dialogue did get heated without steering us away from those disagreements”.

 

A formal statement on the meeting was to be issued later on Sunday.

 

CMC