Italy-Latin America Conference
| Italy-Latin America Conference | |
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| Headquarters | Rome |
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The Italy-Latin America Conference or Italo-Latin America Conference, formally the Italy-Latin America and Caribbean Conference, is an inter-governmental forum for encounter between Italy and the countries of Latin America. A biennial summit is organised in Italy by the "Italo-Latin American Institute" located in Rome, with many initiatives marking the "preparatory path". The institute's aims are to develop and coordinate research and documentation regarding the problems, achievements and prospects of its Member Countries in cultural, scientific, economic, technical and social contexts. The conferences are an effective and well-established foreign policy instrument in Italy’s relations with the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean.
Italy's presence in the region is marked by the large number of people of Italian origin living in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Venezuela, Peru and Chile. Italy is also a point of reference in Latin America because of the Roman Catholic Church and for its status as a G8 nation with large investments in the region, especially in the energy field. There is also a strong collaboration between Italy and nations such as Colombia and Mexico in combating drug trafficking, because of Italy's expertise in the fight against organized crime. As a founding and leading state of the EU, Italy plays a particularly active role in strengthening the partnership between Latin America and Europe. The Italian linguistic, juridical, architectural and musical traditions have become an integral part of the national identity of many Latin American countries, with two nations, Colombia and Venezuela, being named after the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus and the Italian city Venice respectively. Latin America itself is named after the Italic language Latin and the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci.[1]