Santo Domingo grooms itself and receives Ibero-American leaders

Heads of State and Government of Ibero-America begin to arrive in Santo Domingo to participate in the regional summit on Friday and Saturday, in which they will analyze the current situation of the region and the prospects for the future.

(Read also: The measures of the left against racial inequality in Brazil)

At the arrivals on Tuesday of the Portuguese presidents, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, and of Honduras, Xiomara Castro, today they were joined by the King of Spain, Felipe VI, and the heads of state of Uruguay, Luis Lacalle Pou, and of Chile, Gabriel boric.

Everything is already prepared in Santo Domingo to start this XXVIII Ibero-American Summit, very special since it is the first to be held entirely in person since 2018, due to the pandemic.

This moment is reached after years of preparatory meetings, a total of thirteen, on Foreign Relations, Economy, Finance, Environment and Agriculture, the results of which will be presented at the meeting.

Before the regional meeting at the highest level is officially inaugurated on Friday night at the Ozama Fortress and the dinner for the leaders takes place, tomorrow throughout the day it will be the turn of the meeting of foreign ministers.

At this summit there are many issues on the table, focused on four axes: environment, food safety, financial architecture and digitization.

And at the center of all this is the question of equity, as reflected in the motto of this summit, “Together for a fair and sustainable Ibero-America”, in an attempt to curb inequalities of all kinds in the region, from social to gender through the digital divide or poverty.

Ukraine, Haiti, European Union

But at the meeting he will also plan the difficult geopolitical situation due to the war in Ukraine and its range of repercussions, together with the critical situation in Haiti, a topic that greatly worries the neighboring Dominican host.

Latin America’s relations with the European Union (EU) will play a special role, that Spain wants to put at the center of its rotating community presidency in the second half of the year.

In the words of the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, “Spain wants 2023 to be the year of Latin America in Europe and that Latin America is definitely at the heart of the European agenda with a work and financing programme”.

In fact, the high representative of Foreign Policy of the European Union, Josep Borrell, will be present at this summit.

EFE