CAF, ALADI, and CEFIR organized an international forum on regional integration and solidarity

With the presence of prominent figures and representatives from national and international organizations, CAF -development bank of Latin America and the Caribbean, the Latin American Integration Association (ALADI), and the Training Center for Regional Integration (CEFIR) organized the International Forum "Regional Integration and Solidarity - Challenges of the Brasilia Consensus", held at the ALADI headquarters in Montevideo.

The event featured a panel titled "Latin America Facing Integration Challenges", which included the participation of ALADI Secretary-General Sergio Abreu; CAF President Sergio Díaz-Granados; President of the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) Aloizio Mercadante; and former Uruguayan Presidents Julio María Sanguinetti and José Mujica.

"This is a meeting of integration and harmony. The region needs harmony and dialogue. No more friends and enemies from a trade strategy standpoint, because if there is no investment, there is no trade; if there is no trade, there is no employment; if there is no employment, there is no social peace; and if there is no social peace, there are no institutions", said ALADI Secretary-General Sergio Abreu, who presented the panel.

Díaz-Granados said: "We need to see the challenge of regional integration as a crossroads. We are in a time of great global tensions, with rapid technological changes, the reality of climate change, and unresolved issues of inequality and poverty. It's a world marked by uncertainty".

In this context, he called for working towards "effective integration" and reminded that this wasn't achieved even during the pandemic. "We need to take recent lessons to strengthen the ties of integration in the region again", he emphasized.

Díaz-Granados mentioned that, according to CAF studies, "there could be at least 1.8% growth if we could better integrate the region". In this regard, he suggested strengthening ties with other organizations and banks, "not through competition, but through collaboration and trying to align teams and financial capacities in the same direction".

Meanwhile, Mercadante warned that in the current context of tension between the West and the East, "democracy is under attack. It’s a system that needs to incorporate new people's rights and it’s not doing so. Growing polarization is a threat to democracy, which is such a powerful system that even those who deny it can run for elections". Added to this is the protectionism from the United States and the European Union that affects Latin American countries, as well as natural disasters resulting from climate change.

To face all these threats, Mercadante stated that it is important "to be bolder in educational integration in the region. We need to break bureaucracy and bring regional intelligence closer to have an intellectual community committed to integration".

Sanguinetti suggested that to advance in integration, we should rely on existing institutions and legal mechanisms. In a world plagued by wars and climate change, he considered that "the great challenge is political. Democracy itself is threatened", as it is "internally exclusive and from there begins to be exclusive on the international stage as well".

Sanguinetti referred to the Mercosur process since its founding, which was "full of enthusiasm, optimism, and hope" until "political misunderstandings between governments" arose. However, these "did not separate the people. Freedom must continue to unite us, and for that, political leadership is essential and must seek consensus".

Mujica agreed with Sanguinetti, stating that "it is not necessary to create new things. We should use what already exists, ask our governments in the Americas to use the resources and institutions that are in place. We need to be careful not to ideologize common sense and focus on concrete things that people can grasp. Many of these things don't even require money, just political will".

On the other hand, he warned that while we should seek integration, that does not mean "being prisoners of consensus. If we continue like this, we remain paralyzed. Let’s build. We need to keep building, morally pressuring, asking governments and supporting them without judging them".

This final activity of the forum, coordinated by Christian Asinelli, CAF's Vice President, included messages from the President of Chile, Gabriel Boric, and the former President of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos.

Boric said: "Since the Brasilia Consensus, we have made progress on issues like migration phenomena, security, and joint actions in response to climate disasters. These are concrete ways to achieve integration among Latin American peoples. We have all the conditions to integrate. There are different mechanisms in which we can work more collaboratively. Let's keep working on Latin American integration with actions, not just words".

Santos highlighted the importance of "promoting deep, sustained integration in Latin America. Integration is now a matter of survival, not just because of climate change, which is hitting our region hard, but also due to the growing risk of nuclear war, the revolution of artificial intelligence, and the possibility of new pandemics. Present and potential threats make it imperative to dialogue, cooperate, and do more, always united".

During the event, the working meetings "Brasilia Consensus: Towards a Cooperation Protocol on Socio-environmental Disasters" and "The Brasilia Consensus at the Crossroads of Regional Integration" were also held in an open dialogue format, with notable national and international speakers.

The goal of the forum was to design the roadmap to be presented at the COP16 on biodiversity, to be held in October in Cali. To get involved and contribute to the design of this agenda, Colombia's Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development, Susana Muhamad, participated in the event.

This effort addresses one of the challenges of regional integration in facing risks and natural disasters, such as the recent wildfires in Chile, the drought in the Plata Basin, or the devastating situation after the floods in southern Brazil.

Additionally, the overall objective of the event was to promote dialogue on the challenges for regional integration, especially those included in the Brasilia Consensus, celebrated in May 2023 at the initiative of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and which has a roadmap approved by the region’s foreign ministers.