Mercosur full members expressed on Friday, July 21, support for Venezuela to occupy the United Nations Security Council non permanent seat for the coming 2007/08 period.
In one of the 43 paragraphs of the Mercosur presidential summit final declaration held in Cordoba, Argentina, the group states its "conviction" that Venezuela will "promote unrestricted respect" for the principles and norms of international law.
Venezuela early this month was formally accepted as a Mercosur fifth full member, and is currently in the process of complying with the incorporation timetable which extends until 2010.
Venezuela’s presence "will contribute to the necessary balance in addressing those issues", which are competence of the UN Security Council.
Besides the presidents of Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and host Argentina the Cordoba gathering included the leaders of associate members Chile and Bolivia and Fidel Castro from Cuba, which signed a trade agreement with the group.
The final declaration describes Venezuela’s membership as a "historic milestone" in the integration consolidation process and underlines that Mercosur is consolidating as an instrument to promote "integral development, to address poverty and social exclusion based in the concepts of complementation, solidarity and cooperation".
The United States is sponsoring Guatemala for the Latinamerican non permanent seat, which must be renewed at the end of this year.
Mercopress – www.mercopress.com
