Secretary General Ernesto Samper and Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Ricardo Patiño toured the new UNASUR headquarters prior to its official unveiling.
Regional bloc will hold its next summit in Ecuador on December 4 and 5.
Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa has said that the upcoming meeting of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) will focus on deepening regional integration.
Officially launched in 2008, the 12 nation regional bloc has a combined population of 400 million people and an economy of over US$4 trillion.
UNASUR Secretary General Ernesto Samper has stated that one proposal that will be discussed is the creation of a common South American passport to better facilitate the movement of people.
The upcoming summit will be held in Ecuador with the first day of activities in Guayaquil and the second day in the capital of Quito where the new headquarters will be inaugurated.
The organization has opted to name the building after former Argentine President and the first Secretary General of UNASUR, Nestor Kirchner.
President Correa said on his weekly program that the “inauguration of this majestic work...will be the relaunching of the integrationist process because it is important to have a functional building and a team working full time on integration.”
The summit will see the Presidents of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Guyana, Paraguay, Surinam and Venezuela, as well other representatives and observers from other non-member nations including Haiti. The meeting will also see the transfer of the UNASUR presidency from Suriname to Uruguay.
