Fifth summit of the Americas.

• Author: Manning, Patrick
• Position: Prime Minister Patrick Manning - Speech

Statement by the Chairman of the Fifth Summit of the Americas, the Honorable Patrick Manning, Prime Minister of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago April 19, 2009

As Chair of the Fifth Summit of the Americas, I must say how very pleased I was with the manner in which the deliberations progressed yesterday in the Plenary Sessions and again this morning at the Leaders' Retreat. Since taking over the leadership of the Summits of the Americas Process, Trinidad and Tobago has called, consistently, for greater cooperation, integration, and solidarity among our nations as the primary vehicle for ensuring peace, security, and prosperity for all the peoples of the Americas. This Summit has been an historic event for us here in Trinidad and Tobago and for the wider CARICOM Region and has exceeded by far all our expectations.

The Port of Spain Summit was characterized by mutual respect and an eagerness and genuine desire to work together on solutions to the many challenges facing the Hemisphere. Several leaders expressed the view that Port of Spain marks a turning point for inter-American relations and for building a stronger community of nations.

Latin America and the Caribbean are now at a different crossroad in their relations with each other and with the United States of America. With the changing political landscape, the terms of engagement have also been changed by an altogether different posture based on mutual respect and equality among partners. The leaders of the Hemisphere agreed that we now have a real opportunity to put inter-American relations on a completely new footing which sees all countries, big or small, developed or developing, as equal partners. Such relationships must be built on the foundation of a new vision and a people-centered development strategy.

The deliberations over the past day and a half centered on the three main pillars of the Declaration of Commitment of Port of Spain: human prosperity, energy security, and environmental sustainability.

The discussions also focused on reintegrating Cuba into the inter-American system and on developing relevant responses to the current global financial crisis.

Reintegration of Cuba in the Inter-American System

Several presidents and prime ministers called for an end to the exclusion of Cuba from the Summit process and the interAmerican system. There was a clear consensus that the reintegration of Cuba in inter-American relations is an essential step toward building a more cohesive...