 So, good morning everybody. Welcome to CSIS. My name is Carl Meacham and I am the director here of the America's program. I'm glad you could join us this morning and as you all know today's event is a special one. It is a statesman's forum. We've had great speakers in the past and I believe that today is going to be equally as impressive as we've done in the past. So I'm honored to welcome our guest today is Panamanian Foreign Minister Francisco Alvarez de Soto for a discussion of his country's growing role in the Western Hemisphere as an economic and diplomatic leader. I'll leave it to our guest to talk about Panama's emergence as a regional leader which has been particularly noticeable in the past several months and weeks. But before we get started I'd like to give you a brief view of where Panama is now and what we might be able to expect from it in the near future. Panama is among the fastest growing countries in the hemisphere. It registered GDP growth of over 5% in 2013 and is expected to grow as much if not more in the next few years. Panama enjoys among the lowest inflation and unemployment rates in the region and the recent discovery of oil reserves provides yet another indicator of its bright future. The long-awaited completion of the Panama Canal expansions will only boost its competitiveness serving as a boon not only to Panama's economy but also to regional commerce writ large. Much of the attention Panama has garnered in recent months though has not focused on hemispheric commerce. Instead attention on Panama has centered on the increasingly vocal role it's played in the defense of democracy and the wake of the protests that have racked Venezuela since early February. The Panamanian government has repeatedly expressed its concerns with the crisis and Panama was among one of just three countries in the hemisphere to call for action at the OAS to respond to events in Venezuela. Panamanian ambassador to the OAS Arturo Vallerino even ceded his floor time to a leading member of the Venezuelan opposition providing her with a forum to present her perspective of the crisis to the other ambassadors. In light of Panama's vocal role in the international community's response to the crisis the Venezuelan government responded with breaking diplomatic and economic relations to Panama. I was mentioning to the foreign minister all the compliments that I've heard about his speech yesterday at the OAS which he said what had to be said but he said it in such a way that I believe didn't make folks that were so passionately supportive of one side or the other not listened to what he had to say and I think that that's a real talent particularly with an issue as as hot as Venezuela. So you get a sense of his expertise and how good he is at what he does. So in light of Panama's already pivotal role in regional commerce its region its recent emergence as a leader in hemispheric politics will be addressed in today's event and it's particularly timely. Thankfully we have some truly well positioned someone truly well positioned to comment on Panama's success and perhaps some of the challenges it may face as it continues to define its path as an influential hemispheric leader. Francisco Alvarez de Soto has been Panama's foreign minister since February of this year. He has an extensive experience both in the public and private sectors serving previously as partner and director of law at the consulting firm Alves and Company. He also served as deputy minister acting minister of foreign affairs deputy minister of international trade negotiations and executive director of legal and regulatory affairs at cable and wireless Panama which is the largest telecommunications company in Central America. With all that said you know we're really lucky to have you and very happy that we'll be able to address the timely events that I mentioned. I want to remind all of you and those who are watching that this event is on the record. The usual rules apply this morning we will have a question and answer period after the foreign minister gives his brief remarks. When posing your questions please identify yourselves and try to ask a question not just have a statement. So I'd like to welcome all of you and once again Mr. Foreign Minister it's a pleasure to have you. The floor is yours. It's on now. Good morning everyone. I've just been told I have 15 minutes so I'll try to just stay focused on the main ideas I wanted to share with you this morning which are around what I like to call the political economy of Panama's foreign policy. In discussing that and reflecting about that I would just like to start by sharing with you perhaps two basic principles of our foreign policy particularly in this administration. One is that our diplomacy from day one President Martinelli made it very clear was economic and commercial mainly not because there is no need for political action in foreign policy but because this administration has understood from day one that our political agenda internationally had to be based and much influenced by our economic and trade agenda. Why? Because we are a trading nation. We are a nation in change. We wanted to make Panama a different country in these five years taking a lot of the historical values that we have as a nation you know dating back to colonial times when Charles V first thought about you know this pathway from the Atlantic to the Pacific back to the railway in the 19th century and so on. We are a trading nation and as a small nation in the East of Central America to grow we need to look outside of our borders. There is no way Panama could be able to grow the way it's been doing it particularly in these five years if it was not because of how much we believe in free trade and how much we believe in a free economy. Of course for that you need to have a strong democratic system. A democracy that continues to improve itself by perfecting the human rights of all its citizens by perfecting the right of people to descend by perfecting the participation of every single citizen in the political life of the country. Now you know we are in the middle of a electoral process to elect our next president, the entire National Assembly, mayors of cities and towns and council people. These are coming fourth of May and I like to say and this is something I've been sharing with a few people that I have met yesterday here like Senator Rubio for us is an electoral party. We celebrate in the political tournament of course with the heated debates with the Latino kind of way of doing politics but in the end it's a show of tolerance. It's a show of how much Panama has improved since the dark days of you know the regime that was headed by now in Princeton General Noriega. The country has done a tremendous transformation of which we all Panamanians are very proud of. So with that in mind as you know it was pointed out we have done in these five years a lot to make sure that Panama is ready to assume a new role and this is something we've been saying since 2009. We wanted Panama to get closer to what we called First World. For that we tried to figure out what was it that we had to do. Not only being very aggressive the way we've been I believe in international trade integration. This administration has accomplished in terms of trade negotiations far more than any other administration and I could list it for you very quickly. Things that finishing up a very important trade agreement with Canada that was left hanging being able to convince the United States in a way to launch and complete the implementation of the free trade agreement with the United States. The only bilateral by the way trade agreement in Central America because the rest of the region completed a regional free trade agreement with the United States. We managed diplomatically to convince the European Union and the Central American countries that Panama was worth including in the negotiations of the trade agreement between Central America and the European Union. Panama was completely out. Panama was a country that both parties Central America and the European Union demanded that in order for it to be able to sit at the negotiation table it had to join the Central American common market. And that was actually agreed upon by the previous administration. The problem was that it did not delivered on the political promise to both parties. For me in my experience in this administration I think that was the most challenging trade diplomatic project that this administration accomplished because we had both parties against us. The European Union was very skeptical of Panama's attitude towards regional integration. Had promised many many times it would join had promised many times many things regarding Central America but he had never delivered. And of course on the other side we had the Central American countries also not believing. So Panama convinced everybody that it had to be the other way around. Panama's argument had been look we are first of all the European Union's number one trade partner trade and investment partner. I don't know if you know this. I say this figure repeatedly because for me it's impressive. Of all trade between the European Union and the entire Central American region Panama buys 50 to 53 percent of everything the region gets from the European Union. Of course for the Panamanian market having the largest capacity to consume but also for re-shipping and redistributing in the entire region. So it's Panamanian capital and Panamanian entrepreneurs that actually bring that sort of trade from the European Union onto Central America. So there you have the trade capacity the financial capacity and the logistics for it. So that was argument number one and now argument number two was look in order for us to really figure out how we should go about the Central American market we need to sit with the Central American partners and negotiate with the only partner in the world that demands a regional agreement. And it was ironic we convinced the Europeans first and we convinced our own partners on the table. It was the European Union that realized that the pie without Panama was half. So the European Union actually convinced the rest of Central America that we should be sitting next to them to improve the offer vis-à-vis the European Union. We did that we accomplished that we let the closing of those negotiations with the European Union and based on those results Panama was able to map out how we should negotiate the joining of the Central American Common Market and we did it also based on the free trade agreements the bilateral free trade agreements we had with the rest of the region. And we have delivered on our word and that's one of the main results I guess that we should be very proud of is that this administration in many topics regarding foreign policy we have delivered on what we had said and this is one of the best examples. We promised we would join the negotiations we promise we would close the negotiations and we promise that upon that we would join the Central American Common Market and guess what not only we joined it now we're leading the secretariat on international economic integration in Central America it's a Panamanian very ironic that is leading the economic integration of Central America Carmen Gisela Vergara a former trade minister in the previous administration. So I keep telling my colleagues in Central America the foreign ministers and trade ministers do not lecture Panama on regional integration anymore. Integration is of course a very important aspect of our foreign policy and that's I guess the most important action that we have accomplished in order to promote and to project Panama abroad but there have been other initiatives that we have accomplished in order to position Panama once again on the economic trade and political front and and this is the fact that Panama for the very first time has decided to be vocal on global issues. If you look at for example our activities in the context of the United Nations you could see that Panama for the first time has not only you know bought it in favor of I guess resolutions that are addressing complicated topics but it has co-sponsored with leading nations in the world resolutions that are daring and I'm referring for example to how Panama is addressed topics like North Korea on human rights how Panama has been very vocal on Syria. Panama has even suspended diplomatic relations with Syria given the fact given the situation on human rights in Syria. Panama is being vocal and concerned about Ukraine for example and the situation in Crimea and like in you know any democracy there are those locally that say why is it the Panamanian government being vocal about Ukraine it's you know it's a topic that should be of no I guess particular direct interest to Panama wrong why are we worried about those kind of topics in the case of Ukraine for example and the whole debate about what is going on with Crimea and now with the latest news that we are hearing about the you know the eastern part of Ukraine and so on it's simple Panama is worried because this situation is affecting the normal standing of its partners Russia is a good partner of Panama and Russia is taking stand that is basically making it to confront two very valuable partners for Panama the European Union and the United States if there's any sort of economic or trade instability particularly with the European Union that's going to affect trade international trade and if it's international trade is affected Panama is affected not only because it's a valuable partner in the in the Central American region but because of the Panama Canal there are projections of how much international maritime trade will grow partners around the world need to be stable economies need to be focus governments on economic affairs international economic affairs situations like this distract people spending time in addressing complicated situations like this which must be addressed of course distract economies from other topics and that's where Panama needs to be vocal and that's where Panama needs to be contributing in the multilateral arena which is where we believe we can do our best part we've been vocal of course in other topics as I said and in the Americas we've been particularly active I mentioned Central America and I'd like to mention other initiatives where we are very forthcoming one is in the Caribbean Panama and this administration is played particularly interest on the Caribbean wants to relaunch a very valuable organization not many people know about which is the Association of Caribbean States people tend to think of Caricom when we talk about the Caribbean but in reality there is a larger a larger region the greater Caribbean and the Association of Caribbean States is the best forum for the greater Caribbean to try to understand each other in that region better we believe that is particularly important in the case of SICA in the case of Central America in how to approach and engage with Caricom and in that sense Panama since it led the foreign ministers council of the Association last year before it hand over the presidency to Mexico made it very clear that we would stand for a transformation of the Association of Caribbean States from a mere forum where technical cooperation on very specific topics was discussed at very low political levels should be transformed and should become a political and economic forum for the greater Caribbean where ministers with political capacity could address I guess in a clear manner a challenge in the region which is transport we believe that the Caribbean will not be able to grow and improve the economic standards if it's not capable of improving its transport routes if you look at statistics on these topics you will realize that it's extremely to me ridiculous that it is more difficult to move around the Caribbean nations than to move out of Caribbean nations on to the rest of the continent and the rest of the world it does not make sense to me that people tell me that there are two daily flights from Barbados to London but there are no direct flights from Barbados to Panama it does not make sense so those are things that ministers the political levels the presidents the heads of government needs to address and they need a forum for that and that's where Panama believes that with countries like Mexico that we recognize and we with a lot of credit for the political I guess investment on addressing this new forum for the greater Caribbean we would like to spend time and an effort on on changing that dynamic the same thing stands for a very important organization for the Americas and it's the organization of American states I had the opportunity of addressing the permanent council yesterday and truly of course and then we will we will talk about this in a few minutes we we address the the situation in Venezuela but in addressing the permanent council Panama wanted to make very clear to the membership that we stand for the organization we are the first ones to engage in a constructive criticism of the organization we would be the first ones to say it need changes drastic changes to the way it handles you know its administration its finances its agenda political affairs around the Americas but it is the forum for the hemisphere Panama cannot accept and will not accept anyone saying the OAS is dead the OAS is now a second-ranked organization it does not represent the Americas those sort of comments only destroy the Americas the discussion must be a constructive one a broader one it cannot be a destructive one an isolationist one arguments saying that a particular sector of the Americas needs to look inwards and then after looking inwards that part of the Americas would just look outside leaving the rest in our opinion to a certain extent is not recognizing and not respecting those other member states that are not part of that region to a sense is to an extension is a disrespect that's why we tend to say this organization has the history has the credentials has the infrastructure has the experience good and bad to be able to recreate itself and move forward and be capable of addressing the realities of the Americas where everybody is included with all the differences of opinion with all the difference different governments and the differences in understanding how the Americas should engage the rest of the world and that's what we we reviewed yesterday we think that multilateralism in the Americas has to go through the Organization of American States and issues in the Americas have to be addressed at the OAS they can be addressed in regional and sub-regional organizations but there is no valid argument to say that just because a situation a topic a matter is addressed regionally it's automatically excluded from being considered at the OAS you could use you could you could actually go into the parallelism with the United Nations just because then a topic is discussed at the Organization of American States then it cannot be looked at at the UN it does not make sense that's not how diplomacy works and that takes me to conclude to the situation in Venezuela we have been vocal on Venezuela for several reasons and let me make this very clear this is not political opportunism like some people have said around Panama feels very strongly about the situation in Venezuela for historical and cultural reasons Panama Venezuela have a common history we share the same historical leaders and there is so much culture in common that we cannot just look the other way not only that is in a situation back in our history that just I mentioned previously when there were Panama was going through hard times Venezuela was very vocal and very active in favor of Panama and the Panamanian people it would be almost against history not to spend the time and the political will and effort to contribute respectfully without getting involved in internal affairs of Venezuela to help in the establishment of a true and valid dialogue between all the parties involved in Venezuela and in the Venezuela situation Panama has been very clear and very vocal about how the the Venezuelan government is responded to our gestures first of all we do not accept in any way that we have been involved in internal affairs of Venezuela I think it's very clear that when you refer to the charter of the OAS of which we are members and Venezuela is a member we are acting according to international law a common international law an inter-american law and therefore our suggestion to call on the foreign ministers meeting something that it has been done many times in the past the same suggestion was made in the case of Panama many years ago was not getting involved in internal affairs of Venezuela much less it was not an attempt to promote any sort of instability against the government of Venezuela which we have never challenged we regret very much the reaction we keep reminding everybody that it was the Venezuelan government that unilaterally broke diplomatic relations that declare persona non grata all our diplomats in Caracas and gave them 48 hours to leave the country those are measures that we think are were unnecessary disproportionate and unfriendly we did not respond in a similar fashion and we will not engage in that sort of activity we've been accused of getting involved in Venezuelan affairs internal affairs but it's been Panama and the Panamanian government that had to very clearly confront comments express comments clear comments on the part of the Venezuelan president about the Panamanian electoral process and about his preferences towards a candidate in the Panamanian electoral process that is getting involved in internal affairs of a sovereign state clear and simple to date we have not heard any sort of a correction to those sort of statements that were made not one time but repeatedly Panama will continue to be vocal about this Panama will continue to be vocal at the OAS because we believe that the organization must be kept informed we think that eventually in the dynamics that are taking place and we truly hope that the initiative by UNASUR delivers on the expectations we are happy to hear that the Holy See is getting involved that brings hopefully additional credibility to any sort of attempt of mediation or facilitation of a non-existent dialogue right now no matter how much they are talking about dialogue it is our opinion and perspective that there is no true dialogue just yet there are too many things that had to be addressed in order for any constructive dialogue to take place issues regarding human rights violation of human rights the lack of freedom of speech and expression the situation with the political detainees the the sort of aggressive vocabulary that is being employed the lack of tolerance to disagreement so all those elements have to be addressed in our opinion before the dialogue could take place but we truly hope that this initiative takes place and we truly hope that as it moves forward hopefully in the right direction the OAS we are confident and we are convinced that the OAS eventually will have to play a part because it's the hemispheric forum to address these sort of situations because it's done it in the past and it should continue to do it in the future and finally I just wanted also to refer to another aspect of the situation vis-a-vis Panama vis-a-vis Venezuela and is the suspension of commercial relations on the part of Venezuela this is a another unfortunate action on the part of Venezuela we think that it was not carefully thought but there is one thing clear Panama will use all its legal instruments both locally and internationally to protect the national interests and in that sense you will see Panama being vocal at the international forum particularly at the WTO and we've already started addressing this situation and you will continue to see that in the coming days and weeks the measures taken commercially in our opinion are inconsistent with Venezuela's obligations under international trade agreements and they will have to be corrected it might take time but you know Panama has and with this I close a history of knowing how to wait and be perseverant in obtaining the objectives that we believe best served Panama's national interest and the best example is the negotiations of the Panama Canal so if we did it with the big one we can do it this time around as well so as I said yesterday at the OAS we are a friend to everyone we will always be ready to stand and contribute in the situation of Venezuela to contribute in other global topics regional topics but this is a small great nation with a very firm government that will be acting on behalf of the Panamanian people to the very last day of this administration please not have a single doubt about that thank you very much I mean I think you've you've answered all the questions I think we should just believe um no this is very very good and super comprehensive and I appreciate that and my two questions the first question will go to that what do you owe this clarity to I mean you have clarity with regards to your economy your role in the in the region your role in the hemisphere you're very clear on your relationships not not just with the United States also the role that you want to play with the EU how did you get to the success there's so many countries in the region that are struggling with this question you know who they are in the region and what should be the way forward for them either politically or economically but you've been able to articulate and your remarks with remarkable clarity that you guys have figured this out what do you owe that to I think it's a mixture of several things but one that it just comes to my mind immediately when when when your question was presented is the clarity and pragmatism of president martinelli you know under the constitution president martinelli of course leads the international relations with the advice of its foreign minister and he is he was very clear from day one where panama stood in 2009 the good things that we as an administration could you know based our initiatives upon you know state policies in a way for example international trade has been those sort of policies that every single administration had identified as as critical for the country regardless of the political party so he was very clear on that he's very knowledgeable on trade and and in how trade can be an economic and social tool for development he's been very pragmatic he knew where he wanted to take the country he knew for example from day one he started telling the team and everyone we need to continue in measuring ourselves against some sort of a standard that's why the competitiveness index of the world economic forum has been one of the most valuable tools that we have used in this administration in order to measure how much we were accomplishing in different sectors in this you know path towards a more international international country with a president as pragmatic and as clear in its objectives and goals as president martinelli I think the administration regardless of how many for example foreign ministers have been you know appointed and you know internal politics this is one of those criticisms to president martinelli the fact of the matter is that we are transitional you know there is an institution there is an objective there is an agenda he leads it with greater great party and the results by June 30th are going to be there I mean would you attribute some of this as well that I mean for years and years you've been relevant in global terms and mostly because of trade and now you're sort of making the transition or you're pivoting into doing this in a much more aggressive way and I mean we always talk about the region having a global relevance and it seems that you've in maybe that is because of trade and because of the canal you you've understood that very early on that issue how is the construction of the expansion going there were some troubles early on how is that process right now where do you see that going forward well we're very pleased that the situations that the differences that existed between the panama canal authority and the constructors the contractors have been of course resolved the process is moving forward as as usual panama is very clear on how much we need to expedite the conclusion of these major projects and it's not only because it's a national interest which it is of course but it's because of the responsibility of panama to international trade it never stops to impress me when you know traveling internationally the importance to major players around the world that assign to the to the canal you talk to the foreign minister of Japan for example and and he shares with you the international energy strategy that they have for the years the coming years and the panama canal is there you talk to brazil and the panama canal is there you talk to china and the panama canal is there so there is this responsibility of panama to the international community and a responsibility for ourselves to conclude this and we are we're moving forward we are confident we will conclude it with a you know some months of delay of course is natural because of what happened but with i guess also a demonstration of how committed we are to the project i think the negotiations and the differences and how this the panama canal authority handled the situation proves yet one more time how strong the institution is how independent it is and how serious we are as a nation when it comes to international responsibilities and my last question before i open it up to to the audience um you talked about the oas and you were very clear and emphatic about your commitment to the oas it's importance in the region here in the united states people complain a lot about the oas that it doesn't do enough that it takes too long that unanimity is is always very difficult to achieve there's no debate the reference as an example the case of maria corina coming and and and how that episode devolved fiscal problems and then the application of the democratic charter and the difficulties of applying it you talked a little bit about your interest in correcting some of the problems with the oas could you allow elaborate a little bit on that sure i think those you know those sort of criticisms are legitimate it shows that there are points of views about what is not working at the oas and you know based on the opinion of of some the point is that if there is concern about those aspects of the organization address them engage in addressing those those aspects that are not fine in the organization do not walk away from them why because this is the hemispheric organization it has a history it was created out of a moment of unanimity in the americas so i guess that it took a lot and we cannot just let it go particularly important in our opinion for the united states when you think of the dynamics the geopolitics in the continent in the americas you can quickly realize that this is basically the hemispheric forum to engage the rest of the americas for the united states and and for canada maybe and if you see a canadian government very much involved in in sorting out the future the present and the future of the organization i just yesterday i had the opportunity of uh meeting with the canadian ambassador to the oas and i i have to recognize his efforts uh how much he's engaged in issues as boring for some as administrative topics financial topics uh but they're very critical to the situation of the organization and to the capabilities of the organization into the future you see a government that truly recognizes the value of the oas if you see that in canada i would humbly recommend recommend to the u.s. government to truly and forcefully engage in all aspects of the organization um perhaps with a with a new uh with a new um focus with a new way of doing things of course there is this whole you know argument which i think is outdated of the imperialism and you know these sort of things which is not real but of course there is a new reality of the new united states which is more you know aware of sharing and engaging with the rest of the continent and that's where we would say to the u.s take that um i guess renewed attitude and put it to uh work in changing and transforming the oas for the benefit of the united states and of course for the benefit of everyone because everyone else is willing to do it i'm going to take some questions from the audience gentlemen with his hand up we could get a microphone to him hi my name is miguel schlos i am from surinvest an investment company in chile uh thank you for your statement very clear very practical uh excellent i have one question in connection with a somewhat parenthetical comment you made at the beginning about panama wanting to become part of the developed countries part one country uh i'm interested in particularly that aspect about what is it that panama is or is planning to do uh to do that because it's only a handful of countries in the last 20 or 30 years that succeeded in moving from middle income countries to developed because it's a very steep curve it means getting into more value added activities it means creating capabilities where they are known it means innovation it means all kinds of very difficult things that produce more value added we generate the additional income what will be your secret ingredient ingredients in this because i would like to see what we can learn from that in chile thank you well uh of course we know there is a very steep uh path you know to reach to to that um to that sort of level um so in a sense i think that we we have imposed on ourselves that goal to make sure that we you know we walk towards it and get as close as possible when you look at the numbers the macroeconomic numbers particularly in these five years you see that we have walked a long walk fortunately towards that objective the macroeconomic numbers have improved in every in every aspect you know from the the pure and dry uh macroeconomic uh numbers on the structure you know the economy to social uh numbers uh so in that sense we are moving forward and secrets to the formula one uh is that uh we are now proud to call ourselves the second most competitive uh latin american economy after chile and we are going to surpass chile that's that's our first that's our first that's our first that's our first objective uh so for us chile is a reference frankly i mean it's it's it's it's it's a country that of course we we keep on the eye and uh we as i said for for this administration and we would hope that incoming administrations continue to to uh to um um i guess exercise in this this manner we need to measure ourselves constantly uh you know where we uh have to for example in terms of um education we we recognize that to be more competitive to be able to to be to generate more wealth uh we need to educate our people sometimes people and governments look at these sort of public policies in an isolated manner you know we have to educate everyone because you know we don't want illiteracy okay but you have to understand why is it that you don't want it and what are you going to get out of that sort of investment that's the kind of things that president martinelli does constantly he thinks for example he's invested and he bet on investing millions of dollars in creating the first institute for technology medicine um which is something that people say you know why why are you investing 50 million dollars in this building when you have still people i mean kids that need i don't know subsidies for improving their diet in schools you need both things because you need for those kids that you are now subsidizing and helping to ensure they have proper nutrition to have a good institution you know tomorrow so that they become engineers and not necessarily something else because we we need more engineers for example in panama in order to be more competitive um so those are the the the sort of things that these government in these five years have tried to establish and change because this is being an administration of change we have changed the way we did things all over and we would hope that this change is you know is to stay those are the kind of things again that we we look in our formula that we think that is the formula that would take us closer and hopefully to reach that sort of level that we mentioned as long as we stay focused and willing and wishing to reach that sort of level we will continue to advance um infrastructure is key that's why we have invested so much when you have the sort of geographic position that we have been blessed with and you do not invest on that geographic position you are not being true to your future if there is one thing that panama is is logistics and is is is trade we have to invest in that because that's how we would be best able to create wealth for for our people we should not be investing in things that other countries are going to be better off than we are and take the gentleman over here with the hold on one second here sir Raul Herrera Arnold and Porter thank you you've covered the waterfront as they say and I see you've been as tireless and relentless as foreign minister as you were as a young uh vice minister of industry and commerce thank you a few years ago could you touch on briefly on the recent uh trade agreement with Mexico and its implications to the alliance and having touched on the association would panama consider joining the Caribbean Development Bank uh if invited as Colombia Mexico and Venezuela our current members thank you thank you very much for for the question um you know that's the closing of the negotiations and the signing of the negotiation of the agreement I'm sorry with Mexico is uh you know one of those uh final confirmations of how much we have delivered uh in this administration and how practical President Martinez when it comes to objectives uh the negotiations with Mexico have taken in total over 15 years I remember um you know fresh out of law school in one of my first uh public positions uh as a young trade lawyer in the in the foreign trade council of the presidency when we just joined uh WTO in 96 97 trying to figure out how we would you know receive the Mexicans and you know administrations went by attempts went by and he took president martinelli to really sit down and say we need to accomplish this now after we had accomplished the agreement with Mexico and Peru of course the Chile agreement is is is older and he wanted he wanted it to to to do it this way because there was a logic to it and uh with Mexico he um make sure that the team understood and the Mexicans understood that he had to be accomplished in months not years and we did it in seven months and we started from scratch because you know what we had left out of previous administrations was outdated the realities of trade between Panama and Mexico were different so we had to start from scratch and I have to recognize the tremendous work done by the trade team the very small very efficient trading that we have in Panama and definitely is going to put Panama now where it it must be which is at the center of these great project which is the pacific alliance we are the link between those parties we are we must be the platform for the pacific alliance to develop itself internally as a as an area and of course to engage the rest of the world and particularly Asia for us is is critical to belong to pacific alliance and president martinelli sought from day one now that we have signed the agreement we we will make sure that it becomes into law before we leave uh June 30th and and that's thanks to the fact that in Panama international trade is a state policy there have not there have there have been no international trade agreement where there have not been unanimity in the votes in in the assembly every single MP has voted in favor of trade agreements as for the association of Caribbean states and joining the bank I would defer your question to my good friend the ministry of economy and finance that would have to come up with the money as for now we need to make sure that we work on uh coming to a political agreement between all member states into how we want to transform the forum itself for us as the most important thing right now more than belonging to the Caribbean development bank one last question here let me just wait for the mic thank you very much um sienna gergenti with the neighborhood international um I think it can't be stressed enough um how important your leadership on in the international arena has been on a number of issues we don't need to go through the laundry list again but I hope that you might speak to one in particular being Israel um you panama was the only latin-american country to vote against the observer state resolution for the palestinians in 2012 and you continue to show a very principled stance related to a number of anti-israel resolutions that we see come up year after year which we hope will continue as we do anticipate another push of unilateral measures by the palestinians at the un um this spring and going forward as as we see now even in the middle east with negotiations breaking down and coming to the end of this nine-month push by um secretary kerry and and president obama so hoping that you can speak a little bit more to the future of your relationship with israel and and particularly if you have some insights and care to speculate regionally where you might see that going thank you very much for for that question because it gives me the opportunity indeed to uh refer to a very important bilateral relation for panama which is a relation with israel a historic one with israel um let's see um the reason why panama has stood so firmly um in support of israel i think it's just um the logic of of uh of how we see the world and international community particularly when you look at history um now the consistency of our support to israel and which will continue to and just a symbolic comment one of the first official uh visits of president martinelli was to israel and one of his very last will be to israel the same my case i'm trying to figure out dates to pay a visit to minister uh liberman to discuss many global issues as well um what i was saying is that this consistency in our relation is also and you have to think about this is also an opportunity for panama to also be a constructive friend to israel in the sense of also telling our friends in israel when we think that this the realities of the region and the realities of the world need a different opinion and why i say this is because when you think of how we voted uh about the state the palestinian statehood you need to read very carefully how we explain that boat and this is something we've we explained to our friends uh israel and is that we believe that palestine has a right to his state and we believe they have a right to live in peace just the same as israel has a right to and there is a collective responsibility is not just the responsibility of israel is not it's not the only the responsibility of palestine and unilateral actions on the part of either one because we have to recognize that there are moments when israel acts unilaterally uh sold us palestine is not going to solve the situation this is a collective responsibility and palestine must um be uh convinced that it must assume it's part of the responsibility and it goes towards the guaranteeing to israel um a peaceful living in you know with with palestine and the neighbors as long as that not in place at least on the part of panama we will not be able to recognize palestine there must be that before a panama recognizes palestine and and of course you know the situation in the region continues to be complicated that's why we are you know um so worried about situation in syria the same uh we we talk about we refer to iran panama is very vocal they've been very vocal at the un in regards to iran and we are worried we would hope negotiations with iran would move forward in a positive way that would ensure among other things peace and tranquility for israel what we are seeing um coming from every angle is that it's not yet there so if an ally like israel and a friend to panama like israel is worried we are worried and let me take advantage of my role as host to ask you one last question you've talked about your accomplishments and your aspirations in a very good complete way you're at the end of the administration now what keeps you up at night what do you worry about uh we talked about your goals the great things that you've done in your administration but what worries you that's a good question in as foreign minister i would say that to ensure that as june 30th arrives and i said these several times that you know the foreign policy vessel that i've been entrusted with by prescient martinelli reaches a safe port and by reaching safe port i mean that we are very clear and uh and eloquent enough in um presenting to the panamanian people um the accomplishments in international relations of prescient martinelli you know like in any democracy if you google you will find a lot of debate in regards to mistakes but i'm sure the list of accomplishments is far larger and in that sense what worries me at night is to make sure that by june 30th everybody understands that in the balance of net results the positive is far far larger than you know any post potential negative and that panama has moved out of its comfort zone and it's now ready and and able to assume new responsibilities and challenges that will also contribute in um putting panama closer to that first world objective that prescient martinelli dreamt dreamt for panama when he assumed the presidency in 2009 okay well i want to thank you for spending your time with us and being generous we've gone over the allotted time so i appreciate your being here appreciate all of you folks that are watching and the webcast uh i just want to tell you that um you've done a great job thank you very much and uh i'm sure that we'll have you again in another capacity it will be my pleasure thank you very much