Latin American leaders meet to discuss ways toward common development goals

Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solis on Wednesday encouraged Latin American leaders attending a regional summit there to seek common development goals by way of strengthening ties with regions including China and stepping up intra-community cooperation.

While addressing the opening of the 3rd Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), which was held in Belen, Costa Rica, President Solis said that CELAC should continue to consolidate its ties with other blocs and strategic countries, such as China, to achieve development goals.

President Solis, whose country is holding the rotating presidency of the bloc, welcomed the heads of state and representatives of CELAC's 33 member nations with a few words in maleku and bribri, two indigenous languages spoken in Costa Rica, and also delivered part of his opening speech in Portuguese, French and English.

He highlighted the progress CELAC has made over the past year in bolstering its relations with other groups and regions.

Such progress "was attested to" by the launching of the first high-level cooperation forum between China and CELAC, which took place in Beijing in early January, and "will be evident again when CELAC meets with the European Union and other global actors," said Solis.

"The doors have been opened, now we have to cross the thresholds and concretize the agendas that as a region we want to develop with other mechanisms of political coordination and cooperation, or countries and regions, such as the European Union . .., China, Russia, India or South Africa," said Solis.

As part of that push, CELAC will continue to support the United Nation's upcoming Third International Conference on Financing for Development, to which Latin America can contribute collectively, said Solis, who also called for regional governments to work together towards common goals, such as poverty eradication.

Public policies in the next few years must "finally lead to defeating hunger and misery in our region," said Solis. "Working together in these processes will be key to their success."

Solis also called on the economically more powerful countries of the region to help the poorer ones, such as those of Central America.

Participants at the two-day summit are set to debate some 23 different political and economic topics before issuing a declaration, including the new Cuba-U.S. rapprochement.

At the conclusion of the summit, Costa Rica will hand over the bloc's presidency to Ecuador. Endite