EU and Mercosur and notes the commitment of both parties to arriving at an exchange of offers on market access by the end of 2013; welcomes the entry into force of the EU-Central America Association Agreement and of the Multiparty Free Trade Agreement with Colombia and Peru, and looks forward to removing visa requirements with these two countries, as well as to working on further Association Agreements, including with Ecuador; notes that such agreements represent important advances in developing strategic relations between the EU and Latin America; 67. Stresses the need to strengthen contacts and coordination with Latin American partners in multilateral forums; calls for the adoption of a Euro-Latin American Charter for Peace and Security, as requested by the Eurolat Assembly; Africa 68. Insists that preparations for the Fourth EU-Africa Summit in 2014 afford an opportunity to move beyond institutional capacity-building at continental level and towards the establishment of a political partnership for peace, security, socioeconomic development, efforts to combat illicit financial flows from Africa, the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and good governance, at the regional and sub-regional level; 69. Underlines the importance of the respective EU strategies for the Horn of Africa and the Sahel region as a key means of addressing the complexity of the security, governance and development challenges affecting these regions, which span the breadth of Africa; 70. Recalls that longer-term state stability and human security in these two regions require not only the defeating of violent radical extremists and those trafficking in arms, drugs and people, but also the promotion of reconciliation, the strengthening of state and civil society institutions and the provision of alternative economic activities to give people a dignified livelihood, in particular through creating jobs for young people by facilitating the development and implementation of confidence-building measures; Central Asia 71. Supports the EU’s promotion of a regional approach in Central Asia, which is essential in tackling common challenges, in particular as regards stability, security, water and energy, in facilitating dialogue, in developing good-neighbourly relations and in promoting the EU’s strategic interests; calls for the EU’s engagement in this region to be linked to progress on democratisation, human rights, good governance, sustainable socioeconomic development, the rule of law and the fight against corruption; further emphasises the importance of the EU’s presence on the ground in order closely to monitor politically motivated trials, and the necessity of promoting political pluralism; 72. Underlines also the importance of the EU’s dialogue with Central Asian countries on regional environmental and security matters, in particular as regards the management of water resources and the situation in Afghanistan after 2014; welcomes the launch of the EUCentral Asia High-Level Security Dialogue on 13 June 2013; 73. Notes that the energy- and natural-resource-rich Central Asian countries are potentially significant for the EU’s diversification of sources and supply routes in order to achieve a higher degree of energy security; calls on the EEAS and the Commission to continue to strongly support energy supply diversification projects such as the Southern Corridor and