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G-3 Summit Seeks to Cement Trilateral Political, Trade Ties
Presidents from the Group of Three (G-3) kicked off in Caracas their two-day summit on April 7 to seek define and reactivate the group made up of Venezuela, Colombia and Mexico.
At the opening ceremony, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, host of the meeting, urged the G-3 to revive the bloc, which he said has notoriously changed nowadays from its defined position when formed in 1995.
Upon his arrival in Caracas, Pastrana said the revival of the trilateral agreement would mean more trade, more jobs and more welfare for the peoples of the three Latin American countries.
The three leaders -- Colombia's Andres Pastrana and Mexico's Vicente Fox besides Chavez -- pledged to increase trilateral trade, which currently hits 3.6 billion US dollars a year.
"We are talking about a commercial and political bloc, and how to improve and benefit from it. What we are putting forward is more commerce, which means more jobs."
Other issues to be discussed are the creation of the Area of Free Trade of Americas, drug fighting and regional integration.
They would like to coordinate their position in the creation of AFTA by unifying their criteria for the area.
Addressing the issue of drug trafficking, the three leaders urged the international community to help their countries in their anti-drug efforts.
Pastrana noted that drug trafficking is a problem not only in Venezuela, Colombia and Mexico, but a global one, saying "what we are asking other countries to do is to assist us."
Drug production and trafficking in some Latin American countries are rampant, with Colombia as the world leader in this respect.
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