Peruvian President Boluarte pushes for expanded Pacific Alliance
New York, Sep 21 (EFE).- In a push for Ecuador and Costa Rica’s entry into the Pacific Alliance, Peru’s President Dina Boluarte underscored the alliance’s “need to keep growing” and downplayed her differences with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Speaking Wednesday at a CFA Society event in New York, a gathering of Wall Street’s major financial institutions, Boluarte noted that she used her attendance at the 78th United Nations General Assembly to talk with Ecuador’s President, Guillermo Lasso, about his country joining the alliance, currently comprising Mexico, Colombia, Peru, and Chile.
She pointed out that Ecuador and Costa Rica are gearing up for integration into the alliance.
Boluarte revealed that in the presence of Mexico’s Foreign Minister, Alicia Bárcenas, Lasso said they only need to resolve “two issues” for the expansion. According to the Peruvian president, Bárcenas “will speak with President López (Obrador) to facilitate Ecuador’s entry.”
She minimized her disagreements with the Mexican president, who had rejected her as the interim leader of the Pacific Alliance after the exit of her predecessor, Pedro Castillo. Castillo is now in preventive detention due to his failed coup attempt.
Boluarte attributed her differences with López Obrador to “personal matters” and expressed regret that the interim presidency wasn’t timely handed over to Peru.
Next year, she added, Peru will chair the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and hinted at combining this organization with the Pacific Alliance “so we can work for the benefit of our people.”
Speaking on regional economic and investment outlooks at the forum, Boluarte emphasized that without private investment, “communities can’t develop.”
She expressed gratitude to Chile’s Foreign Minister, Alberto van Klareven, present at the event, for his mediation in regularizing the situation in the alliance’s presidency that Peru was due to hold and finally assumed in August.
Also present were Colombia’s Trade Minister, Germán Umaña, Peru’s Foreign Trade Minister, Juan Carlos Mathews, and Liliana Padilla, Director of Investment Promotion Policy from Mexico. Unlike the other attendees, Padilla did not speak.
Two protesters interrupted the Peruvian president as a sign of protest and were escorted out of the venue. EFE.
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