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RUEHRI/AMCONSUL RIO DE JANEIRO 6683
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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BRASILIA 001301 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/30/2018 
TAGS: PREL KSUM BR
SUBJECT: BRAZIL'S LATIN AMERICA/CARIBBEAN SUMMIT: 
CONCENTRIC CIRCLES OR CIRCLING THE WAGONS? 
 
BRASILIA 00001301  001.3 OF 002 
 
 
Classified By: Deputy Chief of Mission Lisa Kubiske, reasons 1.4(b) and 
 (d) 
 
¶1. (C) Summary.  Brazilian officials are describing the 
first-ever Latin America/Caribbean Summit, to be held in 
Salvador, Bahia December 16-17, as an opportunity for the 
region to discuss its own agenda.  With no more than an 
indicative focus on integration and development as the stated 
theme of the summit, the region's foreign ministers have been 
invited to Rio de Janeiro for a preparatory meeting on 
October 6.  GOB contacts have insisted that it is in no way 
connected to the 2009 Summit of the Americas, but fits into 
Brazil's "concentric circles" of foreign policy.  At UNGA 
President Lula described the meeting as an opportunity for 
the region to meet "without tutelage" from "major powers." 
In light of current regional rivalries, the lack of concerted 
preparation, and the much more developed SOA process, this 
new forum is unlikely to present an immediate challenge to 
the SOA as the hemisphere's premier forum, and we should 
continue to press the GOB to engage actively with us to find 
initiatives our governments can pursue jointly for the 2009 
SOA and beyond.   End Summary. 
 
¶2. (SBU) In separate conversations with EconCouns and 
Poloffs, Brazilian Foreign Ministry (Itamaraty) and 
presidency officials have described the planned December 
16-17 Summit of Heads of State and Government of Latin 
American and Caribbean Countries on Integration and 
Development as a "first-ever" opportunity for the region to 
meet "alone" to discuss its own agenda.  The summit will 
include all 33 countries in the region, differing from the 
Summit of the Americas (SOA) process only by including Cuba 
and leaving out the United States and Canada.  South America 
I (Mercosul) Department head Joao Luiz Pereira Pinto, who has 
responsibility for the summit, told Poloffs that the idea for 
the summit is unrelated to the UN's GRULAC, and the timing is 
unrelated to the 2009 SOA--it is simply an opportunity for 
the region's leaders to meet, something which they have never 
done before without other actors present.  Amb. Marcel Biato 
at the presidency's foreign policy unit also denied there was 
any attempt to undermine the SOA process.  He told PolCouns 
that the meeting was simply a logical addition to Brazil's 
"concentric circles" of foreign relations.  These start with 
Mercosul and now include UNASUL (the new Union of South 
American Nations), the Rio Group, the Summit of the Americas, 
and a growing number of inter-regional summits, including the 
India-Brazil-South Africa dialogue (IBAS), the BRICs 
dialogue, the G-8-related G-5, the WTO-related G-20, the 
Summit of Portuguese-Language Countries, the 
South-America/Arab Countries Summit (ASSA), the 
Ibero-American Summit, the EU-Latin America/Caribbean Summit, 
and the Latin America-East Asia Cooperation Forum, among 
others. 
 
¶3. (SBU) At the same time, in his September 24 speech at the 
UN General Assembly, President Lula referred to the summit as 
an opportunity for regional leaders to meet "without 
tutelage."  This aspect of the meeting has not been lost on 
the media, either; a September 30 report in leading Brazilian 
daily Estado de Sao Paulo on the various fora in which Brazil 
is active called the meeting "a Latin American integration 
project based on existing blocs, de-linked from the 
interference of the United States."  Academics and foreign 
policy experts cited in the report agreed that Brazil is 
seeking to create fora where it can be a major player, while 
minimizing the influence of the United States and Europe. 
 
¶4. (SBU) Plans for this latest summit are ill-defined.  The 
head of Itamaraty's Regional Integration and ALADI 
Department, Paulo Franca, told EconCouns that Brazil was 
seeking to create "an inclusive process" in developing the 
agenda and to avoid any suggestion that the GOB was trying to 
control the agenda.  Brazil has proposed integration and 
development, food security, energy, physical infrastructure, 
social development, and sub-regional and regional cooperation 
as possible issues for discussion.  But the GOB does not 
intend to table any papers or draft statements on these 
topics.  Instead, they want to keep the meeting at a 
"political level" and expect foreign ministers to define the 
agenda on October 6 when they convene in Rio de Janeiro for 
the only preparatory meeting prior to the summit itself. 
Franca said that the GOB has no pre-conceived ideas of 
initiatives that might arise from the summit, and foresees 
only the possibility of a joint statement from the Summit. 
The idea is for leaders to discuss what is important to them. 
 According to Itamaraty officials, Mexico and Argentina, 
among others, expressed enthusiasm for the summit idea. 
However, the lack of a clear agenda has left some regional 
diplomats in Brasilia scratching their heads about the 
 
BRASILIA 00001301  002.3 OF 002 
 
 
purpose of the meeting; in separate conversations, Argentine, 
Peruvian, and Paraguayan diplomats told poloff they were not 
clear why the meeting was being held. 
 
¶5. (C) Comment: Unlike the U.S. approach to the Pathways 
initiative, which we have stressed is intended to be 
inclusive, the GOB at the highest levels has singled out this 
forum as being exclusive of "major powers," making it 
difficult to take lower level assurances that it is simply 
another regional forum entirely at face value.  The GOB is 
sincere in its desire to work with us, both bilaterally and 
multilaterally, toward common objectives.  At the same time, 
there is an influential segment within both senior policy 
circles and Itamaraty that actively seeks to avoid and 
minimize ties to the United States, in part by favoring fora 
that do not include the United States.  In that vein, the 
creation of a Latin America/Caribbean forum so close in 
membership to the SOA and the OAS serves to some extent to 
undermine the ideal of a united Western Hemisphere of 
democratic nations, while advancing the notion that there is 
a divide in the hemisphere between the two wealthiest nations 
and everyone else.  Nonetheless, in light of current regional 
rivalries, the lack of concerted preparation, and the much 
more developed SOA process, this new forum is unlikely to 
present an immediate challenge to the SOA as the hemisphere's 
premier forum.  With that in mind, although Brazil has in the 
past been relatively unenthusiastic about the SOA, we should 
continue to press the GOB to engage actively with us to find 
initiatives our governments can pursue jointly for the 2009 
SOA and beyond. 
SOBEL