The Fifth Summit of the Americas: A Reflection

Mark Kirton is Senior Lecturer at the Institute of International Relations on the St. Augustine Campus of the University of the West Indies, Trinidad and Tobago

By Mark Kirton

The Summits of the Americas, the first of which was held in 1994, serve as a forum to bring together the leaders of the Western Hemisphere to discuss common concerns, seek solutions, develop a shared vision and embark on concrete action for future  economic, social and political development in the region.

In short, the Summit process is intended to provide for collective efforts at improving the quality of life of the people of all the countries of the Hemisphere.

Of course over the years there has been one nation of the hemisphere-Cuba –which has been excluded from these summits and this issue was one of the highlights of the just concluded V Summit of the Americas, hosted by Trinidad and Tobago.

The hosting of this Fifth Summit by a CARICOM member state is indeed historic for several reasons. It was the first of these summits to attract the participation of all 34 leaders and certainly has lifted the global profile of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) as a key player in hemispheric political and economic relations.

Like so many other processes around the world, the Summit of the Americas process, in the view of many, is yet to deliver the results initially anticipated and to effectively address the myriad of social and economic problems which impact the people of the hemisphere, especially the poor, indigenous people, women and children.

It is against this backdrop that several of the hemisphere’s social organizations, linked together as an Hemispheric Social Alliance  have since the second summit, arranged a Peoples Summit which runs parallel to the meeting of leaders.

The Fourth Peoples Summit was held alongside the V Summit of the Americas in Port-of-Spain and has forwarded to hemispheric leaders a letter outlining what it considers to be the real problems as well as workable solutions designed by the people themselves.

In offering a preliminary assessment of the V Summit of the Americas one can characterize it as an opportunity for a new beginning in the relations not only among the nations of the hemisphere but between the United States and its hemispheric neighbours, particularly those nations with which it has had somewhat adversarial relations in recent history. The much anticipated discussion on Cuba’s rejoining the hemispheric community of nations brought some movement towards the beginning of the healing process between the US and Cuba and as President Obama himself observed “I do believe that we can move US/Cuba relations in a new direction.”

This opportunity for a new beginning however could easily be lost if there isn’t a meeting of the minds as to whether the history of US relations with the hemisphere should be centrepiece of a strategy for the way forward, or whether President Obama’s desire that the relationship not be held hostage to the mistakes of the past, should prevail.

Further, from a Caribbean perspective, this summit provided an opportunity to further strengthen CARICOM/Latin American relations, traditionally constrained by mutual misunderstanding and mistrust. Coming shortly after the first Latin American/Caribbean Summit on Development and Integration, held last December in Brazil, the V Summit provided another forum for the articulation of common concerns and another step towards the emergence of a new regionally influenced model of development.

Specifically, on the issue of the impact of the summit on Guyana, it can be argued that  the proposed New Energy/Climate Partnership of the Americas, the pledge by the US of funding for boosting the security capacity of Caribbean nations, an increase in the current lending by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the announced establishment of a Micro Finance Growth Fund for the hemisphere are all initiatives from which Guyana should benefit directly.

However, Guyana must itself take a proactive approach so as to ensure that it does not allow these new  opportunities to slip by.