’It was well worth it,’ Prime Minister Patrick Manning declared yesterday, as he brought the curtain down on the Fifth Summit of the Americas, sponsored by the smallest country ever to have held a conference of this magnitude.

At a news conference held immediately after the closing ceremony at the Diplomatic Centre in St Ann’s, Manning was asked how he was now going to deal with the criticism that would come about the costs involved of hosting the summit.

’It is never an inexpensive proposition to host any summit at all. And for a small developing country like Trinidad and Tobago seeking to host a summit like this for the first time, the infrastructural costs would, of necessity, be higher than those costs associated with the conduct of a similar exercise in the more developed countries of the world,’ Manning said.

’We understand that. But we also understand that as you host a summit like this, the eyes of the region and the world are indeed on you, and by all that we have said and done here, and what has come into the public domain over the last few days, attention and more attention has been focused on Trinidad and Tobago. Remember we had here 33 Heads of State and government and one President came to Trinidad and Tobago with 15 senior businessmen for the first time with a view to looking at investment possibilities.’

Noting that many statements had been made at the various fora - business, youth and civil society - Manning said they conveyed the tone of Trinidad and Tobago which has been picked up by those outside of its borders.

’And we believe what justifies it (the expenditure on the summit), is the extent to which we are able to attract investment into the country in the long run. But may I also say that man shall not live by bread alone and that whether we attract investments (or not) ... our contribution to peace and harmony in the Western Hemisphere ... would have had a world effect which would have justified the fact that we have made the commitments of expenditure that we have made. I think it was well worth it,’ he said.

Manning pointed out that in terms of hemispheric relations, this summit proved to be a ’turning point’, a reference to the fact that improved relations between Venezuela and the United States were achieved on Trinidad and Tobago soil, as well as the laying for the groundwork for the re-establishment of relations between the United States and Cuba.

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’It is reasonable to expect that not too long from now, we can see a proper re-integration of Cuba into the institutions of the Western Hemisphere,’ Manning said.

Also at the summit, Caricom leaders met United States President Barack Obama, who asked them to meet with him in Washington last this year.

However, despite these advances, the Port of Spain Declaration was not signed by all 34 countries of the Americas. The document instead bears only one signature - that of Prime Minister Manning, who was authorised by the 34 heads to sign it in his capacity as chairman.

Minister in the Ministry of Finance, Mariano Browne, indicated yesterday that there was ample precedent for such a situation. Browne said at the Canadian Summit and the summit held in Mar del Plata in Argentina, the documents were adopted without being signed by anyone.

’Though,’ he conceded, ’we would of course have liked to have the document signed (by all leaders).’ It would mean that out of five Summits of the Americas, three Declarations have not been signed.

Commenting on the situation, Mexico’s President, Felipe Calderon, said some countries felt that the question of the economic meltdown was not sufficiently discussed; while for others the sticking point was the issue of Cuba; and for others still the issue was whether to continue to describe the countries as having democratically elected leaders.

Manning said: ’Because the document is a negotiated document, no country would get whatever it wishes (for), in totality... Negotiated documents ... of necessity, always fall short of aspirations in varying degrees.’

Manning also pointed out that when discussions on the Declaration began two years ago, the world economic situation was vastly different from what it was today. He said the world economic crisis was not captured in the document ’because it was arrived at such a late stage in the deliberations and (we thought) to have sought to comprehensively address it in that document would have been to open issues which were contentious, and could put us in a position where we would have ended up with no document at all’.

At the press conference, Canada’s Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, President of Peru, Alejandro Toledo, and Calderon echoed Manning’s sentiments that there was consensus but not unanimity about the Declaration. They agreed that a new area of dialogue began in Port of Spain.

Said Harper: ’The most remarkable and incredible thing about the summit was the failure to fulfil the expectations of great confrontation. We all came here believing that we would have quite a battle among radically different perspectives on certain issue... But confrontation gave way to dialogue... and the chemistry among the principal antagonists was very good.’

Added Calderon: ’The spirit of cooperation is so compelling that it goes above and beyond the letter and spirit of the Declaration.’