Minister of People’s Power for Foreign Affairs Jorge Arreaza participated on Monday in the Extraordinary Meeting of Foreign Affairs Ministers of the Ibero-American Conference, held under the theme “Innovation for Sustainable Development-2030 Goal. Ibero-America facing the challenge of Coronavirus.”
In his statement, Foreign Minister Arreaza highlighted that “we have reached a turning point in international relations and the importance of multilateralism to solve any type of crisis or differences,” he said.
“COVID-19 has exposed the many faults of the system that has been imposed in the last centuries and decades,” he said. In this regard, Arreaza stressed that the sanitary crisis “leads us towards a new horizon of cooperation,” highlighting the need of greater coordination, solidarity, multilateralism and humanity.
In this context, the Venezuelan foreign minister thanked the Ibero-American Secretary-General’s Office for the progress made in making a new social pact based on justice, equality, solidarity and shared responsibility to solve the problems the region is facing, including climate change.
Arreaza asserted that the guarantee to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals is the renewal of behaviors towards international cooperation. “The role of states in crisis, like the one we have faced in the last months, is determining, and it must be vindicated and protected by the multilateral system,” he stressed.
Likewise, Minister Arreaza praised the innovation to increase the efficiency of the UN 2030 Agenda. However, he highlighted inequalities among countries regarding financing for development, and recalled the proposal fostered by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to create a Revolving Fund for Public Procurement to facilitate access to resources and meet the SDGs.
Arreaza also recalled Commander Hugo Chávez’s proposal to create an International Humanitarian Fund.
The Venezuelan foreign minister urged the Ibero-American community to join the rejection to the unilateral coercive measures imposed by the United States against countries, and proposed the incorporation of a call to stop these policies into the Conference Declaration.
“They have historically done it with the blockade against our sister Republic of Cuba and its people. Today, Venezuela is also going through a complicated situation due to Washington’s attacks, which also target Nicaragua. These countries belong to our communities and we must defend them,” he pointed out.
Within the framework of the 27th Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State and Government, the Ibero-American foreign ministers met on Monday, November 30, via video conference to discuss the region’s current situation and the issues that will be elevated to the 27th Summit, to be held in Andorra in April 2021.