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OAS and CAN Agree to Coordinate Efforts

  August 22, 2011

The Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), José Miguel Insulza, and the interim Secretary General of the Andean Community (CAN), Adalid Contreras Baspineiro, reaffirmed during a meeting held today in Lima the importance for the two organizations to coordinate their efforts to fulfill their respective foundational objectives.

The two Secretaries General shared their opinions on the main issues of interest on the international agenda and welcomed with optimism the potential of both organizations to adopt the strengthening of regional integration and, in particular, the role of CAN in consolidating democracy in the Andean countries.

The OAS and CAN already signed a Cooperation Agreement on September 17, 1998, in which they establish the bases for collaboration between the two organizations, and the benefits of the agreement were recognized by the Secretaries General during their meeting in the Peruvian capital.

The interim Secretary General of the CAN also highlighted "the evolution of the recent process of the Andean Community through the implementation of a comprehensive and multidimensional model for regional integration, with an important social component encouraging citizen participation."

A joint declaration by the two Secretaries General is available here (in spanish).

For more information, please visit the OAS Website at www.oas.org.

Reference: E-803/11