Among several other issues to be dealt with at today’s meeting…
THE Council of Delegates of the Union of South American Nations, (UNASUR) member states met yesterday in the second day of deliberations, putting the final touches on the preparation for the meeting of Foreign Ministers to be held today at the Guyana International Conference Centre (GICC).
Guyana’s Delegation is headed by Director General, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Elisabeth Harper and Guyana’s Ambassador to Brazil, Harrinarine Nawbatt.
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, on Monday, said that among the issues to be discussed at the Foreign Ministers meeting would be an additional protocol which involves a democratic clause emerging from the Ecuador attempted coup.
The democratic clause would reiterate UNASUR’s commitment to democracy and its abhorrence of any unconstitutional means of taking government. This, she said, would be discussed and finalised by the Council of Foreign Ministers.
The appointment of the Secretary-General is also on the agenda Minister Rodrigues-Birkett said, since the former Secretary-General and President of Argentina Dr. Nestor Kircher has passed on.
Chairmanship of the councils would also be addressed, the Minister said as there are seven councils in UNASUR including health, education, defence and drugs.
The UNASUR Foreign Ministers who will be meeting today are Hector Marcos Timerman (Argentina), David Choquehuanca Cespedes (Bolivia),  Celso Luiz Nunes Amorim (Brazil),  Alfredo Moreno Charme (Chile),  Maria Angela Holguin (Colombia),  Ricardo Armando Patino Aroca (Ecuador), Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett (Guyana), Don Hector Ricardo Lacognata Zaragoza (Paraguay),  Jose Antonio Garcia Belaunde (Peru),  Luis Leonardo Almagro Lemes (Uruguay), Winston Lackin (Suriname) and Nicolas Maduro Moros  (Venezuela).
The Foreign Ministers’ meeting is slated to commence at 09:00 hrs today, while at 18:30 hrs this afternoon there will be a major highlight of the Summit – the conferring of Guyana’s Order of Excellence on His Excellency Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva, President of the Federative Republic of Brazil.

Later this evening there will be a cultural programme in honour of Lula – the outgoing and charismatic Brazilian President – entitled ‘Landscape and Festivals’. Immediately following this will be a reception at the National Cultural Centre in Georgetown for delegates and invitees attending the award and cultural programme.

The delegates and invitees will then proceed to State House for a State Dinner hosted by His Excellency President Bharrat Jagdeo in honour of the visiting Heads of State and Government of UNASUR.

Heads of Government of the 12 member states are expected to begin arriving over the course of the next few hours including President Lula, newly elected Argentine President Christina Fernandez, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, and newly elected Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff.
And tomorrow, there will be the opening session of the IV Regular Summit of the UNASUR Heads of State and Government at 10:00 hrs at the Guyana International Conference Centre.

The historic transfer of the rotating presidency of UNASUR will also take place tomorrow, when the chair will be transferred to Guyana, with His Excellency President Jagdeo assuming the leadership position in the organisation and where it will be his celebrated task to lead UNASUR on to the next milestone.
The fourth summit will be chaired by outgoing Chairman, President Rafael Correa of Ecuador.

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. In August 2009, President Bharrat Jagdeo joined other Heads of Government of UNASUR in participating in the inauguration of President Rafael Correa of Ecuador for a second term. His tenure ends during the same period Guyana takes on the chairmanship.

The value and importance of UNASUR as a mechanism for consensus and an effective political space to solve the differences in South America were highlighted by both President Jagdeo and President Hugo Chavez during a visit by President Jagdeo to Venezuela in July of this year.

During the visit, the Venezuelan leader extended best wishes to President Jagdeo on Guyana’s impending accession to the chairmanship of the Union.