Venezuelan President Opens XXIII ALBA-TCP Summit

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro welcomed regional leaders at the Miraflores Palace on Wednesday in the framework of the XXIII Summit of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America - Peoples' Trade Agreement (ALBA-TCP).

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A number of issues are expected to be addressed, including the strengthening of sovereignty in the global South, solidarity with Palestine and the need to counter U.S. interference in the region.

Present on the occasion are Daniel Ortega (Nicaragua), Miguel Díaz-Canel (Cuba) and Luis Arce (Bolivia), heads of government Gaston Browne (Antigua and Barbuda), Ralph Gonsalves (St. Vincent and the Grenadines), Roosevelt Skerrit (Dominica) and Phillip J. Pierre (St. Lucia), as well as the foreign minister of Grenada, Joseph Andall, and the ambassador of St. Kitts and Nevis, Norgen Wilson.

The countries that make up the regional organization seek to identify guidelines and actions that will result in the transformation of Latin American societies.

Their efforts are based on popular empowerment, the strengthening of sovereignty, solidarity and cooperation with an anti-imperialist and unitary approach, in favor of development with growth, social justice and economic complementarity.

The tweet reads, "ALBA-TCP is the community of our region for the union of wills with inclusive dialogue, respect, cooperation and political agreement. In the face of diversity, we must continue advancing towards the integration of our America and the development of the peoples."

After concluding the debates, the Summit Declaration and the ALBA-TCP Strategic Agenda, will be presented. The Declaration includes actions in five dimensions: economic, political, social, cultural and communicational. 

ALBA-TPC was created in 2004 by the late Presidents Hugo Chávez of Venezuela and Fidel Castro of Cuba in response to Washington's failed project to create the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).

It is currently comprised of Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis, Grenada and Cuba.

The last summit was held in December 2022, in Havana, Cuba. Preceding this summit, the Meeting for a World Social Alternative was held last week in Caracas. The Secretary of ALBA-TCP, Jorge Arreaza, stressed the importance of promoting unity and the design of an agenda to protect the Latin American and Caribbean regions from imperial attacks against sovereign and independent peoples.