The summit of EU, Latin American and Caribbean leaders, which aims to establish a political, economic and social partnership between the two regions, opened formally in Rio de Janeiro yesterday afternoon.
The summit proper was preceded yesterday morning by a meeting of the EU leaders and Mercosur. This "southern market" is Latin America's most dynamic regional economic grouping, and is made up of Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.
Chile, which is still only an associate member of Mercosur, also participated actively in yesterday's talks, a clear sign of rapidly advancing integration in this region.
Mercosur had already won a major pre-summit concession a week ago, when EU foreign ministers agreed to a 2001 start date for substantive negotiations on liberalising trade, including the thorny question of agriculture. Several EU countries which benefit greatly from the CAP, including France and Ireland, had originally wanted to delay these discussions for several more years. Yesterday, apparently, all was sweetness and light.
"President Chirac made no objections whatsoever," Brazil's President, Mr Fernando Enrique Cardoso, told journalists after the Mercosur session. "The meeting was characterised by determination to take the integration process between the EU and Mercosur forward. There was a great feeling that we should act urgently. "The world of the future will be more and more inter-related. There is no room for protectionism. The underlying question between the EU and Mercosur is agriculture, and all speakers mentioned agriculture as being part of our negotiations," Mr Cardoso said emphatically.
He added that both sets of leaders had agreed that the 2001 start date for negotiations was a firm deadline, but that there was no reason why discussions should not start much earlier. A preparatory meeting has been set for November, he said.
The German Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schroder, sat beside Mr Cardoso at the press conference, representing the EU presidency. In a remarkably short but warm intervention he said: "The President has explained everything very clearly, and I agree fully. I can only underscore everything he said. I have nothing to add. We are here to agree, not to disagree."
Such broad platitudes are part and parcel of prestigious but protocol-bound international gatherings like these, but under the verbiage something fundamental does seem to be shifting here. Latin America is being viewed from Europe as a powerful player on the global stage, to be treated with the same respect as the US or the major Asian states.
The opening of the full summit yesterday afternoon added another 28 Latin American countries to the discussions, which cover a broad range of issues.
The Tanaiste, Ms Harney (representing the Taoiseach), made one of the first contributions to a session on democracy, human rights and international co-operation.
Her speech focused on reform of the United Nations, providing her with an opportunity to implicitly remind the 47 other leaders of Ireland's bid for a UN Security Council seat, one of our major current foreign policy initiatives.
She argued that only a properly funded UN could be properly effective: "We have consistently called on all member-states, including the US, to help solve the problem by paying their contributions and arrears.
"Reform, without sufficient resources in key areas to underpin it, is clearly not feasible, and can only dilute the international fight against tyranny, against inhumanity, against injustice, against poverty," she said.
The summit concludes today.