Speakers of Moroccan Parliament and Latin American and Caribbean Parliament Discuss the Launch of African, Latin-American and Caribbean Parliamentary Forum

Speaker of House of Representatives Habib El Malki and Speaker of House of Councilors Hakim Benchamach held talks, Wednesday, February 12^th at the Parliament, with Speaker of Latin American and Caribbean Parliament (PARLATINO) Jorge Esteban Pizarro Soto.

On this occasion, the two sides highlighted the dynamism characterizing cooperation and friendship ties linking the Moroccan Parliament and the Latin American and Caribbean Parliament. The two sides also discussed means to utilize and consolidate the achievements of these relations in favor of the two regions’ peoples.

In this respect, the two sides lauded the initiative of creating a parliamentary forum that gathers the parliaments of Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean, as a space of joint action, and a mechanism for parliamentary and political exchange, and African and Latin-American parliamentary consultation on priority strategic questions. The creation of this forum also means the establishment of parliamentary diplomacy that explores means and possibilities of regional integration and consolidation of South-South cooperation following a solidarity-based, integrative, participatory, and strategic development vision. This vision is based on fostering economic and commercial interests and human ties between Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.

Additionally, the two sides considered this meeting a representation of their active and full commitment to the implementation of the forum’s constitutive declaration, which has conferred a task to the Speakers of both Houses of the Moroccan Parliament in cooperation with the Speakership of PARLATINO. The task consists in initiating communications and consultations with the different regional parliaments to finalize structuring this initiative, and its implementation as a political reality based on a flexible organizational structure, considering its importance in defending common interests, facing challenges, and amplifying the voices of the regions’ peoples in international events.

In the same respect, the two sides agreed on organizing two qualitative events. The first one, to be held next July, is a symposium gathering Speakers of regional and continental Parliaments of the two regions. The second one, to be held next September, is a symposium devoted to discussing matters of common interest, which will be the official launch of Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean Parliamentary Forum.

It should be noted that the signing of the forum’s constitutive declaration took place with the participation of all chairpersons of parliamentary organizations and unions in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean last November. The declaration was signed on the sidelines of an international symposium organized by the House of Councilors and the Association of Senates, Shoora and Equivalent Councils in Africa and the Arab World, and in cooperation with FAO on “Parliaments and Food Security Challenges in Africa and the Arab World,” from October 30^th to November 1^st, 2019.