PRESIDENT Donald Ramotar will join South American leaders in Lima, Peru on November 30 for the fourth Regular meeting of Heads of State and Government of the Union of South American nations (UNASUR). MercoPress, South Atlantic News Agency reported that the leaders will discuss peace, security and the appraisal of a Protocol on Peace, Security and Cooperation that was agreed in an extraordinary meeting of Foreign and Defence ministers from UNASUR during 2009 in Ecuador.
The protocol seeks to create confidence building conditions in defence issues, exchange of information and tasks in border areas such as with Peru, Ecuador and Chile, MercoPress quoted Peruvian Foreign Minister Rafael Roncaglio as saying. Peru is the incumbent pro-tempore chair of the UNASUR.
A task force to elaborate on agreements to integrate a Peruvian proposal for a peace protocol with Chile to build a South American “security architecture and Ecuador’s initiative on a Code of Conduct for UNASUR country members was decided in Quito.
During the period November 26-28, Lima hosted the 6th Regular Meeting of the South American Defence Council (SADC) UNASUR, with the participation of ministers and vice ministers of defence in the region.
UNASUR is an intergovernmental union integrating two South American trade blocs; Mercosur (a regional trade agreement among Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay) and the Andean Community of Nations (a trade bloc comprising countries of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru).
Participating nations of UNASUR are Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and Chile.
In May 2008 the UNASUR Constitutive Treaty was signed for a headquarters in Quito, a South American Parliament in Bolivia and a Bank (The Bank of the South) in Venezuela.