BRASILIA, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- The "severe worsening of the climate crisis" gives urgency to strengthening cooperation between the Amazon countries, Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Tuesday.
He made the remarks during the opening of the Amazon Summit, officially known as the 4th Meeting of Presidents of States Parties to the Amazon Cooperation Treaty, held in Belem in northern Brazil.
"It has never been so urgent to resume and expand this cooperation. The challenges of our era and the opportunities that arise require joint action," he said.
According to Lula, the summit would focus on three main proposals: promoting a new vision of sustainable and inclusive development in the region, combining environmental protection with the generation of decent jobs, and defending the rights of the Amazon's indigenous groups.
"It will be necessary to reconcile environmental protection with social inclusion, promoting science and technology, and innovation, stimulating the local economy, fighting against international crime, and respecting the rights of indigenous peoples and traditional communities, as well as their ancestral knowledge," he said.
The Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization, established in 1995, is the world's only bloc born with a socio-environmental mission, said Lula.
Present at the two-day summit were leaders and senior officials from the treaty's eight signatory countries: Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Guyana, Ecuador, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela, as well as representatives of invited countries. ■
