Toledo's Peru: Vision and Reality

7. Connecting with the Outside World

Chapter Seven Connecting with the Outside World Throughout his administration, President Toledo actively pursued nine related foreign-policy goals. First, he promoted democracy and human rights inside and outside Peru. The struggle against poverty, especially extreme poverty, was a second goal, an initiative Toledo often tied to the promotion of democracy. Third, the administration worked to create a preferential association with neighboring states and, in so doing, to promote economic development in the borderlands. Fourth, President Toledo promoted a reduction in regional arms spending, with the expressed intent to spend the money saved to reduce poverty. The fifth goal of the administration was increased unity and stronger integrationwithintheAndeanCommunityofNations (ComunidadAndina,CAN).Sixth, President Toledo aimed to strengthen commercial and diplomatic relations with the major industrialized states and the Asia-Pacific region. The seventh goal of the administration was to make the Ministry of Foreign Affairs more efficient and effective in promoting the Peruvian economy abroad. The eighth objective was to do a better job of protecting and serving Peruvians overseas. Finally, the Toledo administration targeted a thorough reevaluation and reform of personnel practices within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, especially as related to the scandal regarding the treatment of numerous professional diplomats during the Fujimori administration.1 The previous chapter reviews in detail the bilateral relations of Peru with its Andean neighbors and touches on administration policies related to reduced arms spending and the promotion of democracy and human rights. The promotion of the Peruvian economy and the related struggle against poverty are discussed at some length in the chapter on economic policy (chapter 3). Similarly, reform within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is covered in the chapter on institutional reform Connecting with the Outside World 163 (chapter 4). Therefore, this chapter focuses on the efforts of the Toledo presidency to promote regional unity and integration as the administration expanded its role in multinational organizations and strengthened its relations with the industrialized states and the Asia-Pacific basin. In assessing the role of the Toledo administration in subregional, regional, and extraregional organizations, the reader should recognize that Peru and other Latin American states suffer from what can best be described as summit overload. All of them belong to a wide range of economic and political groupings, most of which hold annual summits that heads of state are expected to attend. To cite a few examples, Peru is a member of the Andean Community of Nations; Rio Group; South American Community of Nations; Summit of the Heads of State of Latin America, the Caribbean, and the European Union; the IberoAmerican Summit of Latin America, Spain, and Portugal; and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum—not to mention the Organization of American States, United Nations, and so forth. With most of these organizations holding annual or biannual summits, it would be impractical for this chapter to try to assess every summit that President Toledo or his delegates attended over five years. Rather, the analysis here is centered on those meetings where the Toledo administration introduced a significant idea or initiative. Antecedents From the outset of his administration, President Toledo emphasized the need for Peru to expand its relations with a wide variety of subregional, regional and extraregional bodies, promising in his July 2001 inaugural address to nurture a foreign policy that would connect Peru with the outside world.2 In so doing, the external policy of the Toledo administration evidenced substantial continuity with that of prior governments. Peru had assumed a leadership role in continental affairs as early as the 1850s, and after a period in which it concentrated on boundary disputes, it resumed that role after World War II. It was a founding member of the United Nations in 1945 and the Organization of American States in 1948 and it joined the Latin American Free Trade Association when it was created in 1960. Interested in economic cooperation and development, Peru also participated actively in multilateral conferences on issues like mineral resources and maritime fishing. In the second half of the twentieth century, Peruvian foreign policy moved in new directions, adopting fresh approaches, addressing unfamiliar issues, and consummating new bilateral and multilateral relationships. Successive administrations diversified arms transfers, broadened trade links, pushed for greater 164 Toledo’s Peru subregional integration, and advocated a reorganization of the inter-American economic and political system. These steps in the direction of an increasingly multilateral approach to foreign affairs were facilitated by a parallel decline...