The Ibero-American Secretary General, Andrés Allamand, has anticipated that more than 14 heads of state will participate in the XXX Ibero-American Summit that will take place in Madrid on November 4 and 5. For this meeting, "all the ministers" of Foreign Affairs are already confirmed, and, as he has emphasized, it is expected to be the meeting with the most tangible results of the last two decades.
This has been indicated by the highest official of the Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB) during an informative breakfast of Europa Press, where he highlighted that the Madrid summit will be the one with the "greatest impact on concrete results of the last 20 years" and that it will have a "very strong" presence. However, he admitted that doubts still persist about the attendance of some leaders.
Among the uncertainties is the Argentine president, Javier Milei. The presence of the leaders of Mexico and Brazil is also not yet assured, although Allamand has acknowledged that he has "very good expectations" about the participation of Claudia Sheinbaum and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Regarding the representation of Venezuela, the Secretary General has indicated that the acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, "is summoned and invited," although for now only the attendance of the Foreign Minister, Félix Plasencia, has been confirmed. "It is a point that is under evaluation by the Government of Venezuela," he reiterated, leaving the presence of the Venezuelan leader up in the air.
In the case of Cuba, he explained that the situation of President Miguel Díaz-Canel is "identical" to that of Venezuela, so it is taken for granted that the Minister of Foreign Relations, Bruno Rodríguez, will attend "with a complete delegation."
The summit will also include an invitation to the Secretary General of the UN, António Guterres, and to the President of the European Council, António Costa. In addition, India, Turkey, and Angola will attend as observers, countries with which Latin American nations seek to strengthen political and economic ties.
Allamand has emphasized that these are three states that "can contribute a lot" to the meeting and that their presence demonstrates that they perceive "the community as an international actor." He has particularly highlighted the role of India, which he attributes a "much more intense" future on the global stage and the potential to become a "main actor," with the capacity even to play a commercial role in the region similar to that which China has had in recent years.
Among the leaders who will not attend are the president of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, and the one from Colombia, Abelardo de la Espriella. As for the Uruguayan president, Yamandú Orsi, his participation is up in the air due to the Pope's visit scheduled for the day after the summit closes.
Throughout the event, the head of the SEGIB has insisted that the Summit "invites" and "calls" "everyone" and that the absence of any leader does not respond to the fact that "they were not invited."
Beyond the list of attendees, Allamand has defended that the meeting in Madrid will serve to "reaffirm the value of the multilateral order based on rules" in a context in which, he has warned, there has never been "so much questioning" of that system.
Agenda and expected agreements at the Ibero-American Summit
Regarding the content of the meeting, he has announced that a "strong" declaration will be approved, which is being negotiated until the last moment, and that the summit will promote the Ibero-American alliance on Artificial Intelligence, a network for response to natural disasters, new academic mobility programs, and a charter to strengthen the care sector.
Given that Latin America and Europe are "out of the game" in the field of Artificial Intelligence, Allamand has proposed "practical" measures for an alliance that allows increasing computing capacity, improving access, data collection, and processing, and favoring the development of proprietary models.
The purpose is for the Ibero-American community to be able to "coordinate efforts" and "articulate" regional initiatives using Spanish and Portuguese as "great battering rams" in an environment where, he has recalled, 92% of the data feeding AI is in English. "We have advanced how we are going to articulate the efforts that are being made," he has pointed out, insisting that it is increasingly crucial not only to use Spanish and Portuguese but also to ensure that "thinking" is done in these languages.
Another of the concrete commitments will be the creation of an Ibero-American network for natural disasters, an "urgent" matter given the increase in climate crises. Allamand has advocated for strengthening coordination among countries and has proposed that the SEGIB itself host a technical secretariat responsible for harmonizing and improving the interoperability of resources allocated for emergency management.
In the academic field, the summit aims to launch the "embryo" of an exchange program similar to Erasmus between Latin American countries. Allamand has recalled that today mobility is supported by bilateral agreements that leave many States in the region out, and has argued that the circulation of students must "flow" and that the cut-off grades should be recognized reciprocally.
On the social front, and in light of the reality of a "very unequal" continent where the incorporation of women into formal employment continues to be low, the secretary of SEGIB has announced that an "Ibero-American care charter" will be approved to support a sector that disproportionately falls on women.
The goal is to correct an "unjust" situation and, at the same time, generate a "positive externality" by increasing female participation in the labor market, something that, he emphasized, Ibero-American countries cannot afford to miss due to their enormous economic potential.
For this entire agenda to materialize, Allamand has stressed the importance of the commitment of member States and has claimed the role of a "stronger" SEGIB, as well as the 'troika' of organizing countries of the summits, responsible for following up on the agreements and the implementation of the commitments made.