2023-08-27 13:00:00
The negative reaction of the opposition to Argentina’s entry into the BRICS and other statements that its top leaders have made regarding the foreign policy they will carry out if they manage to win in the next election It generates concern for those of us who believe in the importance of the diplomatic continuities of our democracy and the strengthening of state policies in this matter.
I am referring to national autonomy in decision-making, cooperation with all the nations of the world, the strengthening of regional integration and support for multilateralism to solve the main issues on the international agenda. These were axes that with different nuances, although with some surrender, were generally present in our policies of the last forty years.
There has been talk of aligning with the United States and Israel, of leaving Mercosur, that there will be no dialogue “with communists” and that we will not join groups of countries where there are members whose policies we dislike.
If this program comes to fruition, we would be facing a profound change in our relationship with the world with negative consequences for an integral deployment that expands our commercial and cooperation possibilities.
Aligning with the United States is an anachronism that that country does not claim.
Aligning with Israel and moving our embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem means breaking the international consensus that President Trump violated and ignoring Security Council resolution 478 that asked states to move their embassies to Tel Aviv in the face of Israel’s unilateral annexation of East Jerusalem. Aviv.
Such alignment implies, among other issues, approving the policy of illegal settlements promoted by Israel in the occupied territories, once morest which the Security Council unanimously ruled in its resolution 2334. Maintaining our traditional position on these issues and vindicating the principle of “two States ” for the settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict never obstructed the development of friendly ties with Israel and also allowed us to maintain an always cordial relationship with the Arab world.
Aligning with the United States is an anachronism that that country does not claim. CIA Director William Burns recently delivered a speech at the British Ditchley Foundation Annual Conference in which he said “democracies and autocracies, developed and developing economies and countries in the Global South and other parts of the world intend to diversify their relationships in order to expand their strategic autonomy and maximize their options. These countries see few benefits and many risks in monogamous geopolitical relationships. Instead, we are likely to see more countries pursue more open relationships than we were accustomed to during several post-Cold War decades of unipolarity.” This country understands the change that is underway and is not offended by the search for new relationships. Affirming our right to diversify our relations does not mean ignoring our cultural belonging to the West and our fundamental cooperation with the United States in strategic matters, which has always been maintained in successive Argentine democratic governments.
Dialogue only with those who have the same vision of the world as we have has never been a reasonable guide for prudent management of foreign relations. It is not understood what is being pursued, since our inaction or the verbalization of our repudiation and hostility will not change those countries at all, which will continue to play an important role and will surely deteriorate any possibility of trade and future relations.
Finally, Mercosur must be maintained and improved, and any decision on its future must be negotiated with our partners, particularly with Brazil, which is our great political and commercial ally. Argentina cannot be extracted from such a deep relationship, anchored in geography and in the numerous and varied exchanges since the dawn of democracy, bringing it back to the mistrust of the times of the dictatorship.
These extravagant policies that are announced have no similarities with those practiced by most Latin American countries, nor by European ones that prioritize their national interest over principled or ideological considerations. These deviations will only lead us this time to isolate ourselves and lose opportunities in a very diverse world whose axes of power are changing and moving to new regions and countries with which it is essential to relate to improve our economic and commercial possibilities on which it depends our future development.
*Ex Vicecanciller
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