Hon. Sam Condor leads St. Kitts and Nevis delegation to 40th OAS General Assembly in Peru

St. Kitts and Nevis Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hon. Sam Condor

ST. KITTS, JUNE 8th 2010 (CUOPM) – St. Kitts and Nevis’ Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hon. Sam Condor is leading the twin-island federation’s delegation to the 40th General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS) which opened in Lima, Peru.

Topics on the agenda include poverty reduction, disaster relief and charter improvement.

The other members of the St. Kitts and Nevis delegation include Permanent Representative to the OAS, His Excellency Dr. Izben Williams and Acting Chief of Protocol and Foreign Service Officer, Ms. Nicola St. Catherine.

Peruvian President His Excellency Alan Garcia and OAS General Secretary His Excellency Jose Miguel Insulza opened the three-day meeting, with the theme of “Peace, Security and Cooperation.”

Thirty-three of the 35 member states of the OAS, except Cuba and Honduras, sent representatives to the assembly.

Topics to be discussed are diverse, with the Haitian delegation expected to present measures to tackle natural disasters.

“We hope it to be a great opportunity to review the measures and reach important agreement on the problem of natural disasters,” said Foreign Minister Her Excellency Marie Rey, who headed the Haitian delegation.

Chile will propose improving the inter-American Democratic Charter which was approved in 2001, while Peru will propose measures to strengthen the Charter’s enforcement.

Argentina will seek support from OAS members for its demand to recover the sovereignty over the Malvinas Islands, known as the Falkland Islands in Britain.

Honduras, which had been expelled from the OAS in June 2009 after a coup, is expecting to be re-admitted to the multilateral organization.

More than 100 businessmen from Latin America said they would demand governments in the region reduce military expenses and increase funding for the fight against poverty.

Worker leaders also presented to the OAS a document rejecting a controversial immigration law of Arizona, the United States.