The Rio Group and the Millennium Summit.

By His Excellency Andres Pastrana Arango

President of the Republic of Colombia

The Millennium Summit coincided with the period during which Colombia has had the great honour to serve as the pro tempore Secretariat of the Rio Group.

For the first time, our region-Latin America and the Caribbean-is celebrating the advent of a new millennium. We have been privileged to participate in this celebration, together with the rest of the world and, more particularly, in the context of the General Assembly of the most representative and universal organization-the United Nations.

As spokesman of the 19 Latin American and Caribbean countries that are members of the Rio Group, I have referred to a number of issues that are important to the region and are part of the international agenda for the twenty-first century. I should like to share here some of these contributions that have become an integral part of the Declaration of the Millennium Summit and which will be the subject of much deliberation and discussion during the Millennium Assembly.

Since the early 1980s, when a group of Latin American States created the Contadora Group and the Support Group, the region has sought to reach common positions on the main issues on the UN agenda. These Groups made a useful contribution to our joint efforts to ensure that, within an essentially regional framework, we could lay the foundations that would subsequently enable Central American countries to restore peace and security to their region. This was also an aspiration to which the United Nations owes its creation and which inspired its active participation in this process.

Since the establishment of the Rio Group in 1986 with the adoption of the Declaration of Rio de Janeiro, the region has developed an even closer relationship with the world Organization. Today, the United Nations and the Rio Group have become the two multilateral forums of the greatest political importance for Latin America and the Caribbean. The former, because it is the most universal and legitimate multilateral organ for the management of the global agenda, and the latter, because it is the broadest forum for dialogue and political concertation at the regional level.

As we look back on 14 years of existence of the Rio Group, it is clear that the United Nations has been the principal venue for dialogue and political concertation between members of the Group.

What is more, not only has the United Nations provided an appropriate political...