ARF Bureau Member Meets with Biden

VINA DEL MAR, Chile—ARF Bureau member Mario Nalbandian met with Vice President Joe Biden on Sun., March 29 during the sixth Conference of Progressive Leaders, which was being held in South America for the first time, reported the ARF Press Service.

Nalbandian, who is the ARF’s representative to the Socialist International where he is a co-chair of the CIS, Caucasus, and Black Sea Committee, discussed pressing issues of concern to Armenia and Armenians.

The Conference of Progressive Leaders was attended by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, and Presidents Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil, Cristina Fernandez of Argentina, and Tabare Vazquez of Uruguay.

Chile’s President Michelle Bachelet hosted the summit, which opened Fri., March 27 with a seminar on “a progressive response to the global crisis,” organized by the Policy Network, an international think tank, and Chile’s Instituto Igualdad (Equality Institute).
Other participants in the gathering were the secretary general of the Organization of American States (OAS), Jose Miguel Insulza, and the executive secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLAC), Alicia Barcena.

The Progressive Leaders summits, the first of which took place in 1999 at the urging of then-President Bill Clinton and then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair, bring together heads of state and government and other high-ranking officials with ties to socialist, social democratic, labor, and democratic parties around the world.