From December 2 to 4, 2019, a three-day network meeting of the KAS ADELA partners on the future of the Pacific Alliance (PA) took place in Lima. This served to unite all organizations and institutions that have already worked on the topic of the Pacific Alliance in the past within the KAS formats SOPLA and KACIRSS. The former KAS Regional Program "Social Governance in Latin America" (SOPLA) and the Konrad Adenauer Center for International Relations and Security Studies (KACIRSS) are now combined under the umbrella of the newly created regional program "Partnerships for Democracy and Development with Latin America (ADELA)". It also provided the opportunity to present ADELA as a regional program and to discuss new topics concerning the role of Latin America in intraregional alliances such as the PA.
Among the participants were representatives from universities like the Pontífica Universidad Javeriana (Bogotá, Colombia), the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (PUCP), the University EAFIT (Medellín, Colombia), the University ICESI (Cali, Colombia), the Universidad Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP), and the Universidad Católica del Uruguay (UCU), research centres such as the GIGA Hamburg or CRIES (Buenos Aires) and representatives of international organizations such as CEPAL, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (Santiago de Chile).
The conference was opened by Winfried Weck, director of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Panama and of the regional program ADELA, Sebastian Grundberger, director of KAS Peru, as well as by Fabián Novak, director of the Institute of international Studies (IDEI) of PUCP. Afterwards the participants introduced their institutions and presented current research projects and publications – these included publications in cooperation with the KAS, on the topic "Pacific Alliance". The afternoon was followed by an open round table debate on current issues: the potential for cooperation and fusion between the PA and MERCOSUR, the role of observer and partner states, as well as the current political instability in Latin America and its possible impact on the Alliance.
On the second day of the event, the discussion focused on the question to what extent the PA sees itself only as a geostrategic union that will cooperate with Pacific countries, especially in Asia, or whether an orientation towards Europe and opportunities for cooperation with the European Union (EU).The direction and institutionalization efforts of the Pacific Alliance will continue to be a focus of attention for the EU and Germany in the future, so one point of consideration is the importance of Asia in the Latin American market. Participants in the network meeting will continue to publish, research and exchange information on this topic. Thus, the basis for new projects with the PR ADELA in 2020 and another meeting in conference or dialogue format towards the end of the year have been successfully created.
