Nicaragua fails to back censure of Russia at end of EU-Latin America summit

Celac president declares first summit of its kind in eight years a success despite late wrangling

EU leaders have failed to persuade all of their Latin America and Caribbean counterparts to strongly condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, despite watering down a joint statement closing a two-day summit in Brussels.

Ralph Gonsalves, the president of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac), brushed off a row after Nicaragua failed to agree to the sole paragraph on the war in the final 41-paragraph communique.