MEXICO CITY (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th July, 2023) Nicaragua neither approved nor signed a final declaration of the third summit of the European Union and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), accusing the EU of violating democratic procedures due to its pressure on the Ukraine issue, the Nicaraguan Foreign Ministry said.
The third EU-CELAC Summit took place in Brussels from July 17-18. The EU failed to convince CELAC member states to directly condemn Russia's special military operation in the final declaration, but the document still expressed "deep concern on the ongoing war against Ukraine." The item caused dissatisfaction in Managua.
"The Nicaraguan government of national unity and reconciliation is informing our people and the international community that it neither signed, nor approved, nor supported what has been so pompously and falsely called ... the Consensus Declaration of the third EU-CELAC Summit. The European Union, as it usually happens, breached all procedures and mechanisms set by democratic institutes," the foreign ministry said in a statement circulated by Nicaraguan media.
The ministry also reiterated its "vocation for peace" in the statement.
The CELAC is an intergovernmental bloc. It was founded in 2010 to boost integration among Latin American and Caribbean countries and reduce the United States' influence on the region. The organization currently consists of 33 member states.
