Una nueva asociación estratégica birregional: la Cumbre América Latina y el Caribe-Unión Europea

The Latin America and Caribbean-European Union (ALC-UE, by its initials in Spanish) Summit was held in Río de Janeiro, Brazil, on June 29 and 30, 1999. In this meeting, the leaders signed a political declaration in which they committed themselves to develop a strategic ALC-UE association that would bring a new dimension to interregional relations. Rafael Cervantes analyzes the factors that came together to make the ALC-UE Summit possible; he examines the work done in preparation for the meeting and the agreements reached during it, and he gives an overview of the future prospects of the biregional relationship. The author concludes that the ALC-UE Summit was a highly important historical event on the international stage that made it possible to reinforce political dialogue at the very highest level between the two regions, and agree on the bases for decisive encouragement of biregional economic relations and cooperation, fundamental in consolidating a new strategic, privileged and mutually beneficial association. According to him, this will allow Latin America to face the challenges and ventures of the future in better conditions.