Despite earlier promises to the contrary, the fifth European Union-Latin America-Caribbean (EU-LAC) summit Friday in Lima failed to deliver much more than gestures and was yet another sum of good intentions with little practical content, dpa reported.
People in attendance seemed more interested in the looks that German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez might give each other after a week of verbal wrangling, or in the neverending arguments between Chavez and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, or between Uribe and Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa.
The Lima Declaration issued jointly by the 60 participant countries contained few specific commitments. It was known in advance that the text would not set specific goals in the fight against poverty.
However, the Lima Declaration also failed to set concrete objectives on climate change, the other focus of the agenda in the Peruvian capital.
Biofuels, which have caused such a stir for their alleged role in soaring global food prices, are a key issue for countries like Brazil and Argentina but were barely mentioned - in just one line of the declaration.
To make matters worse, people outside the delegations did not get to witness the debate. Cameras captured the opening and closing remarks, but the sessions in between were behind closed doors.
The format may well be useful for the leaders attending the summit but denies public opinion the chance to monitor the meeting.
Against the background of a summit with few achievements, it is no wonder that clashes between personalities prior to the meeting attracted the most attention.
Merkel accepted Chavez's apologies, and a handshake sealed the reconciliation, less than a week after the Venezuelan president said that the German leader represented "the same right wing that supported Hitler."
There was no happy ending, though, between Chavez and Uribe, or between Uribe and Correa.
The Andean neighbours made the most of their opportunities with reporters in Lima to comment Thursday's Interpol report, which found that Colombian authorities did not tamper with computer records allegedly showing evidence that Venezuela aided and armed Marxist guerillas in Colombia.
The computer was seized after a cross-border airstrike against a base on Ecuadorian territory of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The March 1 raid killed a large number of guerillas including FARC second-in-command Raul Reyes.
But not of the three locquatious leaders said much new about their bitter confrontations. Uribe insisted that "terrorists are not given refuge, anywhere."
For the sparse achievements of the summit, Lima residents were subjected to days of restrictions, traffic jams and even unexpected public holidays.
The summit is now likely to fall into oblivion, and Lima can go back to its normal routine - at least until it hosts the summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic (APEC) Forum in November.