Sir, - The "discovery of Latin America" by the Tanaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Spring, as he related in your columns (April 27th) is greatly to be welcomed. It is to be hoped that this personal discovery by the Minister may lead to the region's discovery by his Department and some serious consideration being given by Irish foreign policy to developing links with the region.
The traditional neglect of Latin America by our foreign policy has been shortsighted in the extreme. Not only have the rich historical links been ignored, as the Tanaiste admitted in his article but the possibilities for winning valuable markets have been completely underestimated.
Added to these reasons is one not mentioned by the Tanaiste namely that Ireland could benefit greatly from closer dialogue with a group of countries whose developmental experience is far closer to that of ours than is the case with our nearest neighbours. We have a common colonised past, have used similar sets of policies to combat the deep rooted legacy of underdevelopment, are in a highly dependent and vulnerable position in the international marketplace and experience stubborn problems of social exclusion and inequality side by side with respectable economic growth.
The Tanaiste's "discovery" has come too, late to influence the recent White Paper on foreign policy which signalled, by omission, continuing neglect of the region. Hopefully now, we will at, the very least reciprocate the decisions by Mexico and Brazil to open resident embassies in Dublin over recent years by opening Irish Embassies in their capitals. To keep citing cost as an excuse for not doing this makes one wonder about just how serious our foreign policy establishment is in promoting our, national interest with the vigour it requires. Yours, etc.,
School of Communications,
Dublin City University,
Dublin 9.