2023-08-24 15:07:00
Just over a hundred days following leaving Rivadavia’s chair and his office in the Casa Rosada, the president Alberto Fernandez got the surprise invitation to join the Brics, the political and economic giant that rivals the United States and the European Union, and that has Russia as an active partner Vladimir Putin, questioned for his invasion of Ukraine. Also to another recent guest: the Islamic Republic of Iran, accused by the Argentine Justice as the instigator of the two terrorist attacks that the country suffered, in March 1992 and July 1994.
Beyond the official explanations, the decision of the five original members of the group (in addition to Russia, China, Brazil, India and South Africa) surprised the Government, which, attentive to previous signals, did not send representatives to the Johannesburg summit. A few days ago, both in the Casa Rosada and in the Foreign Ministry headed by santiago cafiero They recognized that it “didn’t make sense” to travel, since at that time there was no consensus among the member countries to even discuss the incorporation of the countries that requested entry, including Argentina.
Alberto Fernández connected to the Brics match virtuallyTwitter @gabicerru
The intervention of the Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silvainterested in sustaining his regional leadership, was key to unlocking the negotiations, according to the agreement from different terminals of the official management in terms of international relations.
“Lula from there, with China and India, put the issue on the agenda and pressured it to be defined now,” they say in a low voice close to Foreign Minister Cafiero, who worked for the incorporation to take place today, and not with the change of government , in December. They say close to the President that Lula da Silva called Fernández yesterday to confirm that there would be good news, and that it had been possible to modify, in situ, the mechanism for the entry of new applicants to the conglomerate of countries that founded the Brics fifteen years ago. After an early morning “without sleep”, according to what was said from the presidential environment, the official announcement was made.
Nobody in the Government seemed to take into account that the change of government that will arrive in less than four months might bring regarding a 180 degree turn in relation to what was announced. Both referents in foreign policy of Together for Change, as Frederick Pinedo; as of Freedom Advances, of Javier MileyThey have already expressed themselves forcefully once morest the country’s entry into a club with suspicious and uncomfortable partners such as Russia and Iran, coinciding with the view of Washington and Brussels. Milei, in fact, went much further, saying that he would not make “pacts with communists” in relation to the Chinese government, also interested in increasing its shares and its influence in South American territory.
Engaged in a fierce trade fight with China and while supporting Ukraine in defense of its territory, the United States does not welcome this definition, at a time when the Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, has just obtained a kind of artificial respirator (with the help of the White House) for the Argentine economy, which means the US$7.5 billion of new debt taken with the IMF. Neither did the EU, whose representatives were concerned in recent weeks regarding the possibility of Argentina joining the Brics. From one of those countries, today they were annoyed by the incorporation of Argentina together with Iran and other countries with “few democratic credentials” and respect for human rights. “We want to trade with the whole world for the good of the country,” they retorted from the ruling party.
The presidents of China, Xi Jinping; Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva; South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, and the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, during the meeting of the BricsMARCO LONGARI – AFP
In the Government, and as the President himself expressed in the eight minutes that his morning speech took, they spoke of “pragmatic” reasons to justify the move, such as the 24% of world GDP that the block as a whole manages. “A new scenario opens. We are going to be protagonists of a common destiny in a bloc that represents more than 40 percent of the world’s population, while we continue to strengthen relations with other countries in the world,” said the President, while his spokesmen distributed the numbers detailing the strong influence of Brazil, China and India in the regional economies.
“National interests”, stressed the President, although the entry of the new partners (Egypt, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and, above all, Iran) sounds like a new challenge from the bloc to the United States and the European Union. “There was a deepening of the gap between north and south,” said the President, with words that pleased the ears of Kirchnerism with a black palate, angry with the President but who nonetheless celebrated the agreement because -they maintain- it helps to “get out of the IMF extortion”, in the words of the leader of Espacio Puebla Jose Cruz Campagnoli.
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