President Oscar Arias announced yesterday he will host Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega in San José Thursday in an effort to warm a frosty relationship. The Presidents will eat lunch together after a private meeting at the Foreign Ministry.
The meeting is part of an effort to restart the Bilateral Commission, a project started in the 1990s to create a permanent dialogue between the two nations to address issues of common interest. The commission was suspended in 1997 during an escalation of tensions over Costa Rica's right to navigate along the San Juan River, which creates a border between the two countries. The issue is now before the International Court of Justice in The Hague (TT, Aug. 24).
Other points of friction between the two leaders include Costa Rica's poor treatment of Nicaraguan immigrants and unwillingness to join institutions of regional integration such as the Central American Parliament.
This is the leaders' second meeting since they returned to their respective presidencies after their first terms in the late 1980s. Arias invited Ortega to Costa Rica during their first meeting in late August in Nicaragua. Ortega confirmed just yesterday that he would come, according to Foreign Ministry spokesman Miguel Diaz |
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