LIMA: A third summit between South American nations and countries in the Arab world —postponed earlier by the "Arab Spring" — will take place in one year, Peru’s foreign minister said Tuesday.
Rafael Roncagliolo said that the foreign ministers of the countries that make up the South America-Arab Countries (ASPA) group agreed on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting in New York to meet in Lima Sept. 26-28, 2012.
The event will take place "immediately after" the next UN General Assembly meeting, Roncagliolo told the government agency Andina.
The meeting had originally been scheduled for Feb. 13-16, at the time that then-president Hosni Mubarak was facing a wave of protests that led to his downfall.
The first ASPA summit was in 2005 in Brasilia, with the most recent hosted at Doha in March 2009.
The forum brings together 22 Arab countries and 12 South American nations on the initiative of former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Leaders that had confirmed their presence at the canceled February event include now-embattled Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad; Jordan’s King Abdullah II; Qatar’s Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani; and Morocco’s King Mohammed VI.
