President Barack Obama will seek improved cooperation with Latin America at a summit marking a “new beginning” for hemispheric relations, a White House advisor said Thursday. Jeffrey Davidow said the April 17-19 summit in Trinidad and Tobago is a chance to build on regional optimism about the new U.S. president. “Coming so early in the administration, this legitimately can be seen as a new beginning,” he said in Washington. The meeting will be the fifth Summit of the Americas since 1994 and the first held in the Caribbean. At the summit of 34 democratic countries, Davidow said the Obama administration will focus on the global financial crisis, energy policy, and public security. He said discussing Cuba would be an “unfortunate” distraction. Luis Alberto Moreno, the president of the Inter-American Development Bank, said Latin American countries worrying about the financial crisis will be watching Obama closely. Since the first Summit of the Americas, he said, governments in the region have grown more skeptical of U.S.-backed economic policies. “If the U.S. is in the tone of saying they are willing to listen, that is great,” Moreno said.
