Since its first edition in 2012, the “Strategic Triangle Meeting: Latin America - Europe – Africa”, co-organised by the EU-LAC Foundation’s partners, Instituto para a Promoção da América Latina e Caraíbas (IPDAL) and the Ibero-American Secretariat General (SEGIB), has brought together prominent experts and decision-makers from governmental, international and scientific institutions as well as from the private sector of the three regions to analyse the state of the art and present proposals for improvement in Atlantic relations. This year, the Meeting’s dialogue sessions that took place from February 28th to March 1st at the Universidade Europeia in Lisbon, revolved around “Multilateralism and Free Trade in the Atlantic Area”.
Among the prominent speakers in this year’s meeting were:
- João Gomes Cravinho, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Portugal,
- Julio Arriola, Foreign Affairs Minister of Paraguay,
- Andrés Allamand, Ibero-American Secretary General (SEGIB),
- Luis Almagro, Secretary-General of the Organisation of American States (OAS),
- Antonella Cavallari, General Secretary of the Italo-Latin-American Institute (IILA),
- Georges Chikoti, Secretary-General of the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States, (virtual participation),
- Félix Ulloa, Vice-President of the Republic of El Salvador (virtual participation),
- Sergio Díaz-Granados, President of CAF - Development Bank of Latin America (virtual participation),
- Ricardo Mourinho Félix, Vice-President of the European Investment Bank (virtual participation),
- Andrés Delich, Deputy Secretary-General of the Organisation of Ibero-American States (OEI) (virtual participation),
- Aguinaldo Jaime, President of the Board of Directors of UNITEL.
The Executive Director of the EU-LAC Foundation, Adrián Bonilla, was invited to offer a presentation during the inaugural debate about “New Geopolitical Perspectives”, a space he shared with Antonella Cavallari, Secretary-General of the Italo-Latin-American Institute (IILA) and Georges Chikoti, Secretary General of Secretary-General of the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States.
For the first time, the EU-LAC Foundation was also invited to organise a Panel in this meeting. The Panel addressing “The Role of Science and Innovation in Latin American, African and European enterprises, with special emphasis on SMEs” was moderated by Anna Barrera, Senior Programme Manager of the EU-LAC Foundation, and counted with interventions by:
- Andrés Delich, Deputy Secretary-General of the Organisation of Ibero-American States (OEI),
- José Luis Rhi-Sausi, Coordinator of the PYMES Forum, Italo-Latin-American Institute (IILA),
- Jimena Estrella, Strategic Advisor for innovation and institutional development, Obreal Global,
- Odilia Abreu, Senior Project Manager, Friedrich Naumann Foundation.
The dialogues held were intensive and the quality of the speeches delivered was very high. On the sidelines of the event, the Executive Director held brief talks with João Gomes Cravinho, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Portugal, and Julio Arriola, Foreign Affairs Minister of Paraguay. The meeting is designed as an event closed to the general public. Among the invited assistants there were representatives from the Portuguese government, ambassadors from the three regions, business representatives, as well as academics and students of the Universidade Europeia.
