Summit of South American-Arab Countries
Encyclopedia
The Summit of South American-Arab Countries is a bi-regional mechanism for cooperation and political coordination, which gathers the 22 member-States of the League of Arab States and the 12 countries of South America. Better known by its Portuguese and Spanish acronym ASPA, the bi-regional forum was created upon proposal of the Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva , known popularly as Lula, served as the 35th President of Brazil from 2003 to 2010.A founding member of the Workers' Party , he ran for President three times unsuccessfully, first in the 1989 election. Lula achieved victory in the 2002 election, and was inaugurated as...

, during the I ASPA Summit of Heads of State and Government, held in Brasilia
Brasília
Brasília is the capital city of Brazil. The name is commonly spelled Brasilia in English. The city and its District are located in the Central-West region of the country, along a plateau known as Planalto Central. It has a population of about 2,557,000 as of the 2008 IBGE estimate, making it the...

, Brazil, in May 2005. Since its inception, a second ASPA Summit happened in Doha
Doha
Doha is the capital city of the state of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf, it had a population of 998,651 in 2008, and is also one of the municipalities of Qatar...

, Qatar
Qatar
Qatar , also known as the State of Qatar or locally Dawlat Qaṭar, is a sovereign Arab state, located in the Middle East, occupying the small Qatar Peninsula on the northeasterly coast of the much larger Arabian Peninsula. Its sole land border is with Saudi Arabia to the south, with the rest of its...

, in March 2009. The III ASPA Summit was scheduled to be in Lima
Lima
Lima is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín rivers, in the central part of the country, on a desert coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Together with the seaport of Callao, it forms a contiguous urban area known as the Lima...

, Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....

, in February 2011, but was postponed due to the Arab Spring
Arab Spring
The Arab Spring , otherwise known as the Arab Awakening, is a revolutionary wave of demonstrations and protests occurring in the Arab world that began on Saturday, 18 December 2010...

 uprisings.

Member-states

ASPA is composed of 34 member-States and the General Secretariats of the League of Arab States (LAS) and the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR). The South American member-States are: Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

, Bolivia
Bolivia
Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...

, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

, Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...

, Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

, Ecuador
Ecuador
Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...

, Guyana
Guyana
Guyana , officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, previously the colony of British Guiana, is a sovereign state on the northern coast of South America that is culturally part of the Anglophone Caribbean. Guyana was a former colony of the Dutch and of the British...

, Paraguay
Paraguay
Paraguay , officially the Republic of Paraguay , is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the east and northeast, and Bolivia to the northwest. Paraguay lies on both banks of the Paraguay River, which runs through the center of the...

, Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....

, Suriname
Suriname
Suriname , officially the Republic of Suriname , is a country in northern South America. It borders French Guiana to the east, Guyana to the west, Brazil to the south, and on the north by the Atlantic Ocean. Suriname was a former colony of the British and of the Dutch, and was previously known as...

, Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...

 and Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...

. The Arab members are: Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...

, Bahrain
Bahrain
' , officially the Kingdom of Bahrain , is a small island state near the western shores of the Persian Gulf. It is ruled by the Al Khalifa royal family. The population in 2010 stood at 1,214,705, including 235,108 non-nationals. Formerly an emirate, Bahrain was declared a kingdom in 2002.Bahrain is...

, Comoros
Comoros
The Comoros , officially the Union of the Comoros is an archipelago island nation in the Indian Ocean, located off the eastern coast of Africa, on the northern end of the Mozambique Channel, between northeastern Mozambique and northwestern Madagascar...

, Djibouti
Djibouti
Djibouti , officially the Republic of Djibouti , is a country in the Horn of Africa. It is bordered by Eritrea in the north, Ethiopia in the west and south, and Somalia in the southeast. The remainder of the border is formed by the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden at the east...

, Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

, Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

, Jordan
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...

, Kuwait
Kuwait
The State of Kuwait is a sovereign Arab state situated in the north-east of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south at Khafji, and Iraq to the north at Basra. It lies on the north-western shore of the Persian Gulf. The name Kuwait is derived from the...

, Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...

, Libya
Libya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....

, Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...

, Mauritania
Mauritania
Mauritania is a country in the Maghreb and West Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean in the west, by Western Sahara in the north, by Algeria in the northeast, by Mali in the east and southeast, and by Senegal in the southwest...

, Oman
Oman
Oman , officially called the Sultanate of Oman , is an Arab state in southwest Asia on the southeast coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by the United Arab Emirates to the northwest, Saudi Arabia to the west, and Yemen to the southwest. The coast is formed by the Arabian Sea on the...

, Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....

, Qatar
Qatar
Qatar , also known as the State of Qatar or locally Dawlat Qaṭar, is a sovereign Arab state, located in the Middle East, occupying the small Qatar Peninsula on the northeasterly coast of the much larger Arabian Peninsula. Its sole land border is with Saudi Arabia to the south, with the rest of its...

, Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...

, Somalia
Somalia
Somalia , officially the Somali Republic and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic under Socialist rule, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. Since the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991 there has been no central government control over most of the country's territory...

, Sudan
Sudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...

, Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....

, Tunisia
Tunisia
Tunisia , officially the Tunisian RepublicThe long name of Tunisia in other languages used in the country is: , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area...

, United Arab Emirates
United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates, abbreviated as the UAE, or shortened to "the Emirates", is a state situated in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia on the Persian Gulf, bordering Oman, and Saudi Arabia, and sharing sea borders with Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Iran.The UAE is a...

 and Yemen
Yemen
The Republic of Yemen , commonly known as Yemen , is a country located in the Middle East, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, and Oman to the east....

.

Decision-making structure

ASPA's decision-making structure is composed of four hierarchic levels:
  1. the Summit of Heads of State and Government, which meets every three years;
  2. the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs, which meets every two years and at the sidelines of the UN General Assembly;
  3. the Council of High Officials, which convenes every six months;
  4. the Sectorial Committees (in the areas of Economic Cooperation, Scientific and Technologic Cooperation, Environmental Cooperation, Social Cooperation, and Cultural Cooperation), which meet at the sidelines of High Officials Meetings and in the preparation of Sectorial Ministerial Meetings.


ASPA's structure, which is described in Paragraph 119 of the "Doha Declaration", also contemplates a coordination body – the Executive Coordination Group –, which is composed by the countries occupying the Presidency of the Arab Summit and of UNASUR, as well as the General Secretariats of the League of Arab States (Arab Regional Coordinator) and of UNASUR (which has not been constituted yet, so the South American Regional Coordination is currently being exerted by Brazil). Peru was included in the Group as the host-country of the III ASPA Summit.

Areas of action

ASPA acts in the areas of political coordination and cooperation among its member-States.

Political coordination

In its political coordination, ASPA has embraced positions which are in line with the traditional policies advocated by developing nations in international fora, such as the reform of the United Nations
Reform of the United Nations
Since the late 1990s there have been many calls for reform of the United Nations . However, there is little clarity or consensus about what reform might mean in practice. Both those who want the UN to play a greater role in world affairs and those who want its role confined to humanitarian work or...

, with greater presence of former "third-world" nations in its decision-making bodies; respect for multilateralism
Multilateralism
Multilateralism is a term in international relations that refers to multiple countries working in concert on a given issue.International organizations, such as the United Nations and the World Trade Organization are multilateral in nature...

 and international law
International law
Public international law concerns the structure and conduct of sovereign states; analogous entities, such as the Holy See; and intergovernmental organizations. To a lesser degree, international law also may affect multinational corporations and individuals, an impact increasingly evolving beyond...

 (as opposed to unilateral action
Unilateralism
Unilateralism is any doctrine or agenda that supports one-sided action. Such action may be in disregard for other parties, or as an expression of a commitment toward a direction which other parties may find agreeable...

); adoption of a development-oriented agenda at the World Trade Organization
World Trade Organization
The World Trade Organization is an organization that intends to supervise and liberalize international trade. The organization officially commenced on January 1, 1995 under the Marrakech Agreement, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade , which commenced in 1948...

; poverty reduction
Poverty reduction
Poverty is the state of human beings who are poor. That is, they have little or no material means of surviving—little or no food, shelter, clothes, healthcare, education, and other physical means of living and improving one's life....

 and the implementation of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals; nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament
Nuclear disarmament
Nuclear disarmament refers to both the act of reducing or eliminating nuclear weapons and to the end state of a nuclear-free world, in which nuclear weapons are completely eliminated....

; support to negotiations aiming at the creation of a Palestinian state living side-by-side and in peace with Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

.

Cooperation

ASPA's cooperation facet involves actions organized through five Sectorial Committees of Cooperation for Economics, Science and Technology, Environmental, Social and Cultural affairs. An extense agenda has been established since the Mechanism's creation, in 2005, by means of seminars, workshops and Ministerial meetings aimed at establishing South-South cooperation agreements.

Economic cooperation

  • MERCOSUR
    Mercosur
    Mercosur or Mercosul is an economic and political agreement among Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. Founded in 1991 by the Treaty of Asunción, which was later amended and updated by the 1994 Treaty of Ouro Preto. Its purpose is to promote free trade and the fluid movement of goods, people,...

    , a South American customs union
    Customs union
    A customs union is a type of trade bloc which is composed of a free trade area with a common external tariff. The participant countries set up common external trade policy, but in some cases they use different import quotas...

     gathering Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, has been negotiating free trade agreements with three Arab partners – the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Egypt
    Egypt
    Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

     and Jordan
    Jordan
    Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...

     –, as well as a preferential tariffs agreement with Morocco
    Morocco
    Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...

    . These negotiations haven't been finalized, but palpable results of the process of approximation of both regions can already be perceived: commerce between South American and Arab countries has grown, since the year before the creation of ASPA (2004), from US$ 11 billion to US$ 30 billion (2008).

Cultural cooperation

  • The main projects of the ASPA Cultural Cooperation Plan of Action are the construction of an Arab-South American Library in Algiers
    Algiers
    ' is the capital and largest city of Algeria. According to the 1998 census, the population of the city proper was 1,519,570 and that of the urban agglomeration was 2,135,630. In 2009, the population was about 3,500,000...

    , the creation of the South American Research Institute in Tangiers, the opening of the Library-Research Center of South American-Arab Countries (BibliASPA) in Sao Paulo
    São Paulo
    São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...

    and the organization of the Arab Culture Festival in Sao Paulo.

Environmental cooperation

  • Arab and South American countries have common interests in exchanging experiences and cooperating in combating desertification, water desalinization technologies, and climate change monitoring.

Scientific and technical cooperation

  • Both regions will develop cooperation programs in the field of Information and Communications Technology (ICT).

Social cooperation

  • Successful experiences in the field of poverty reduction are being exchanged by countries of both regions.

History of ASPA

The following meetings were held since the creation of ASPA, in 2005:
  • I Summit of Heads of State and Government (Brasilia, 10–11 May 2005)

  • Experts Meeting to Develop the Project of the Arab-South American Library (Algiers, 19–20 Nov 2005)

  • I High Officials Meeting (Cairo, 29–30 Nov 2005)

  • I Meeting of Ministers of Culture (Algiers, 31/Jan a 3 Feb 2006)

  • I Meeting of Ministers of Economy (Quito, 24–25 Apr 2006)

  • II High Officials Meeting (Caracas, 18–19 Jul 2006)

  • III High Officials Meeting (Cairo, 31/01/2007)

  • Meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of MERCOSUR with the Subsecretary-General of Gulf Cooperation Council – GCC (Rio de Janeiro, 18 Jan 2007)

  • I Meeting of Ministers of Environmental Affairs (Nairobi, 6 Feb 2007)

  • I Meeting of Ministers of Social Affairs (Cairo, 3 May 2007)

  • II Meeting of Ministers of Economy (Rabat, 21–23 May 2007)

  • IV High Officials Meeting (Santa Cruz de la Seirra, 19–20 Jul 2007)

  • II Meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs (Buenos Aires, 18–21 Feb 2008)

  • Meeting of the Committee on Cultural Cooperation (Algiers, 28 Apr 2008)

  • Meeting of the Committee on Science and Technology and Seminar on Water Resources, Semi-Arid and Desertification (Recife, 20–22 Aug 2008)

  • V High Officials Meeting (Doha, 20–23 Oct 2008)

  • Meeting of Ministers Responsible for Water Resources and Combating Desertification (Riyadh, 16–17 Nov 2008)

  • Meeting of the Committee in Charge of Preparing the II Business Conference at the sidelines of the II ASPA Summit (Sao Paulo, 16–17 Dec 2008)

  • High Officials Meeting preparatory of the II ASPA Summit (Cairo, 18–19 Feb 2009)

  • Meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs Preparatory of the II ASPA Summit (Cairo, 4 Mar 2009)

  • II Business Conference at the sidelines of the II ASPA Summit (Doha, 29–30 Mar 2009)

  • II Summit of Heads of State and Government (Doha, 31 Mar 2009)

  • II Meeting of Ministers of Culture (Rio de Janeiro, 20–21 May 2009)

  • Meeting of the ASPA Regional Coordinators to Develop a Preliminary Agenda of Cooperation in the Field of Intellectual Property, at the sidelines of the WIPO Meeting (Geneva, 21 Sep 2009)

  • Meeting of the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs at the sidelines of the 64th UN General Assembly (Nova York, 23 Sep 2009)

  • Meeting of the Committee on Environmental Cooperation at the sidelines of the 9th COP/UNCCD (Buenos Aires, 26 Sep 2009)

  • Meeting of the Committee on Cultural Cooperation at the sidelines of the 35th Conference of UNESCO (Paris, 14 Oct 2009)

  • Meeting of the ASPA Regional Coordinators to Develop a Preliminary Agenda of Cooperation in the Field of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), at the sidelines of the International Conference on Internet Governance (Sharm El-Sheik, 15–19 Nov 2009)

  • Meeting of the South American UNCCD Focal Points to Develop an Agenda of Bi-Regional Cooperation to Combat Desertification within ASPA (Sao Paulo, 4 Dec 2009)

  • Meeting of Diplomatic Representations of the ASPA Member-States Preparatory of the VI High Officials Meeting (Brasilia, 7 Dec 2009)

  • VI High Officials Meeting (Quito, 26–27 Feb 2010)

  • II Meeting of Ministers of Social Affairs and Development (Brasilia, 1–2 Mar 2010)

External links

  • ASPA Website of the Brazilian Ministry of External Relations – http://www2.mre.gov.br/aspa/english.html
  • Website of the Second ASPA Summit of Heads of State and Government – http://www.qatar-conferences.org/south/english/index.php
  • Website of the Library-Research Center of South American-Arab Countries (BibliASPA) – http://www.bibliaspa.com.br/
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