Summit of South American-Arab Countries


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, during the I ASPA Summit of Heads of State and Government, held in Brasilia, Brazil, in May 2005. Since its inception, a second ASPA Summit happened in Doha, Qatar, in March 2009, and a third Summit was held in Lima, Peru, in October 2012, after being postponed, from February 2011, due to the Arab Spring uprisings.

Member-states

ASPA is composed of 34 member-States and the General Secretariats of the League of Arab States and the Union of South American Nations. The South American member-States are: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela. The Arab members are: Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Mauritania, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.

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, 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 and of UNASUR. The host-country of the next ASPA Summit is also invited to be part of the Group.

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, with greater presence of former "third-world" nations in its decision-making bodies; respect for multilateralism and international law ; adoption of a development-oriented agenda at the World Trade Organization; poverty reduction and the implementation of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals; nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament; support to negotiations aiming at the creation of a Palestinian state living side-by-side and in peace with Israel.

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

Summit of Heads of State and Government

The following meetings were held since the creation of ASPA, in 2005: