ParlAmericas gets briefed by the OAS in advance of the IX Summit of the Americas
On 17 May, members of ParlAmericas’ governing bodies, its board of directors and thematic network executive committees, convening parliamentarians designated by the national parliaments from the Americas and the Caribbean, received a briefing from senior OAS officials in advance of the IX Summit of the Americas to be held from June 6-10 in Los Angeles, United States of America, under the central theme of Building a Sustainable, Resilient and Equitable Future.
The meeting included interventions by ParlAmericas President Senator Blanca Ovelar (Paraguay) and Vice-President Bridgid Annisette-George, Speaker of the House of Representatives (Trinidad and Tobago), and presentations by Francisco Guerrero, OAS Secretary for Strengthening Democracy and OAS representative to the Board of ParlAmericas, and María Celina Conte, Director of the Summits of the Americas Secretariat, followed by an interactive dialogue.
In their presentations, Mr. Francisco Guerrero gave an overview of the political climate in the region, and Ms. Maria Celina Conte shared a summary of the Summits of the Americas process, and the different official forums and stakeholders involved.
Recognizing that the Summit is the hemispheric instance for the coordination of regional actions to address the ongoing and new challenges in the hemisphere and given the relevance of the issues it addresses, ParlAmericas has been taking steps to strengthen the substantive participation of parliamentarians of the hemisphere in the Summits of the Americas process.
With this in mind and considering the need to reaffirm the importance of parliamentary participation in multilateral spaces, the meeting included the announcement that a hemispheric inter-parliamentary meeting will be held ahead of the IX Summit of the Americas.
This virtual meeting, scheduled for the first of June, will bring together parliamentarians from the Americas and the Caribbean to discuss the importance of parliamentary diplomacy for multilateralism and regional integration.
In addition, a ParlAmericas parliamentary delegation composed of members of the Board and the executive committees of the ParlAmericas networks, will participate in the parliamentary meeting organized within the framework of the IX Summit to be held in the city of Los Angeles on June 6 and 7, 2022.
