The countdown begins for the 28th Ibero-American Summit to be held today, the 24th, and tomorrow, the 25th, in Santo Domingo, and which we face with renewed illusion. Those of us on this side of the Atlantic take advantage of this new appointment of the great Ibero-American family to take a closer look at Latin America and the Caribbean.
The experience of more than thirty years of Ibero-American Summits allows us to have a unique instrument for the political dialogue, coordination and cooperation between the 22 countries that make up this community. An irreplaceable instrument to give an Ibero-American response to the great challenges shared on both shores of the Atlantic.
Ibero-America is a reason for personal ties, values, agreements and cooperation at all levels, which has a natural ally in Europe.
As of July 1, we have a new opportunity ahead of us to give a renewed impetus to that relationship. Spain assumes the presidency of the EU and will use its full potential to further strengthen tiestie them and seal them for the vocation of permanence of a mutually beneficial relationship.
I am convinced that Latin America and the Caribbean is the most Eurocompatible region on the planet. Together we have an excellent platform for external action, from which we can contribute our experiences, achievements and proposals to the world, collaborating with various actors.
What unites us are our common principles and values, democracy, the rule of law, human rights, legal certainty and freedoms. All this is summed up in the motto with which the current ‘pro tempore’ presidency of the Dominican Republic brings us all together in Santo Domingo: “Together for a fair and sustainable Ibero-America”, to which Spain also wants to join Europe.
Barely fifteen days after Spain assumed the presidency of the EU, Brussels will host the European Union-CELAC Summit, which we must reach with objectives oriented towards the interests, opportunities and challenges that we share. The Ibero-American Summit is an excellent space to begin to define and adjust them.
The Santo Domingo Summit allows us to lead the way with concrete actions. Some of them are peremptory, such as those addressed by the Ibero-American Environmental Charter, in which we work to provide solutions in the present from which future generations can benefit.
The Ibero-American Charter of Principles and Rights in Digital Environments that we have promoted to promote inclusion, access to education, culture and health for all our citizenss.
But we also have other issues of extraordinary urgency, such as what we have called “Critical path to achieve inclusive and sustainable food security in Ibero-America”, an initiative that contains a valuable message for the international community on the role that Ibero-America can and should play in a moment of crisis and uncertainty of prices and supplies. These are issues for which Spain will spare no resources.
Our common ideals are a valuable instrument to bring the voice of Latin America to the heart of Europe. We do it in Spanish and Portugueses, from the “iberofonía”, which will also emerge strengthened from this Ibero-American Summit thanks to the commitment of Spain, together with Portugal, Brazil and Paraguay, and all the other Ibero-American countries, to give a new boost to Spanish-Portuguese bilingualism. And also valuing Spanish, a heritage shared by hundreds of millions of people around the world.
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At the end of this Ibero-American Summit, the International Congress of the Spanish Language (CILE). It is an occasion that Arequipa (Peru) has offered to Cádiz and that Spain will take advantage of to show its firm commitment to the care, promotion and unity of the Spanish language. A Spanish that will be heard with more force in Europe under our presidency.
Spain will project this reality that the Ibero-American Summit in Santo Domingo will expose to the world and that a part of Europe is still not sufficiently aware of. We will make a new appeal to our partners on the continent to look Latin America in the face. With a constructive, exciting, fraternal, permanent look that allows us to see a horizon of shared prosperity with a vocation of permanence from which our peoples benefit.