The 60th Summit of Mercosur and Associated States Heads of State is taking place today (21) in Paraguay. This is the block’s first face-to-face meeting since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. The event will end the interim Paraguayan presidency and initiate the Uruguayan mandate. On the same date, the Prosul meeting, the Forum for Progress and Development of South America, created a few years ago as an alternative to Unasur, will also be held.
During the meeting of Mercosur leaders, discussions are expected, of course, involving the Common External Tariff (TEC), regulatory issues and industry specifics. In addition, the sustainability, energy agenda and infrastructure development should guide the discussions.
An agreement should be signed between the countries of the bloc to combat femicide. Deepening relations with other partners in the region and beyond, with special emphasis on the legal review of the Mercosur-European Union Association Agreement, which is experiencing a sensitive period, should also emerge.
Last year, in commemorating the bloc’s 30th anniversary, President Jair Bolsonaro argued that updating the TEC was a central part of the process of restoring Brazilian dynamism. He spoke of the need to modernize the bloc and the importance of redoubling efforts in foreign negotiations to stimulate innovation and attract foreign investment.
Despite this, however, Brazil is experiencing one of the many uncertainties in terms of foreign policy in this area. While professional diplomacy ensures that agreements and key documents are signed in line with the country’s foreign policy traditions, as in the presidential declarations on Defense Cooperation, Post-Pandemic Recovery and Digital Integration signed at the previous Summit, the CEO, for example, does not miss the opportunity to openly highlight the lack of political interest on this agenda. There is a huge gap between what the government says and what it does in this area.
In fact, its own action, both at the last Summit and this Summit, is in itself a manifestation of a lack of a sense of priority in issues of regional integration. At the end of 2021, the 59th meeting, chaired by Brazil, turned to face-to-face talks. However, days before the event, the Bolsonaro government decided to turn the event into a virtual format. This gesture caused enormous embarrassment and was seen by foreign interlocutors as a deliberate boycott by the Brazilian government, as the decision coincided with former President Lula’s visit to Argentina’s President Alberto Fernandez.
At this year’s 60th meeting, Bolsonaro decided not to go to Paraguay, citing “program problems in Brazil.” At the last minute, government sources reported that he could attend by sending a pre-recorded video to be shown to other attendees during the meeting.
On the official agenda of the president yesterday, Pedro Cesar Sousa, Deputy Head of Legal Affairs of the General Secretariat of the Presidency; with Carlos Massa Ratinho Júnior, governor of the state of Paraná; Assistant Paula at Otoni (MDB/RJ); and the president’s participation in the opening of the 57th National and International Convention of Casas da Bênção Churches, as well as several enforcement actions by PLs.
Today, in addition to another meeting with Pedro Cesar Sousa, the president has only three other meetings scheduled: with his two ministers and Bruno Bianco, the Union’s attorney general. Last night, the president went to the Mané Garrincha stadium to watch the match between Flamengo and Juventude.
In addition to the protocol woes that followed in the above-mentioned events, Bolsonaro’s relationship with the bloc has been marked in recent years by provocations and ironies about partners, in addition to a major crisis involving the environmental agenda and its implications. He provoked matters of Mercosur’s foreign affairs.
In 2022 alone, accumulated by June, data from Itamaraty itself shows that Brazil exports approximately US$10.5 billion to the Mercosur countries. Brazil is the largest country in the bloc. It is the most populous, regionally large and economically important country in Latin America. Until then, the region was considered the most powerful prop of its interests in the world. With Bolsonaro, he saw this hero decline.
As with many other fronts of the country’s international engagement, we face another leadership gap. In Paraguay, once again in 2022 we are seeing government policy phagocyte opportunities to address state issues.
source: Noticias
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