CELAC - Community of Latin American and Caribbean States

Why is in news? EAM S Jaishankar holds talks with his UAE, Indonesian, Egyptian & Cuban counterparts on sidelines of UNGA session; Also participates in India-CELAC Quartet Meeting

• External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar held talks with his UAE, Indonesian, Egyptian and Cuban counterparts on the sidelines of UN General Assembly in New York.
• The meeting took stock of developments towards a post COVID pandemic economic recovery.
• They agreed to work closely in sectors including Trade and Commerce, Agriculture, Food and Energy security, Health, Vaccine production, Traditional Medicines and logistics.
• They also discussed regional and multilateral issues of mutual interests. Both sides acknowledged their cooperation in UN and other multilateral bodies, and agreed to work together on global issues including UN reforms and Climate Change.
• The Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) is an intergovernmental mechanism for dialogue and political agreement.
• It is a regional forum that brings together all of Latin America and the Caribbean countries.
• CELAC is the successor of the Rio Group and the Latin American and Caribbean Summit on Integration and Development (CALC)
• It consists of 32 sovereign countries in the Americas.
• Due to the focus of the organization on Latin American and Caribbean countries, other countries and territories in the Americas, Canada and the United States, as well as the overseas territories in the Americas of France (Overseas departments and territories of France), the Netherlands (Dutch Caribbean), Denmark (Greenland) and the United Kingdom (British Overseas Territories) are not included.
• CELAC is an example of a decade-long push for deeper integration within Latin America.
• CELAC was created to deepen Latin American integration and by some to reduce the significant influence of the United States on the politics and economics of Latin America.
• It is seen as an alternative to the Organization of American States (OAS), the regional body that was founded by United States and 21 other Latin American nations originally as a countermeasure to potential Soviet influence in the region.