RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The recent trip to Mexico and the United States by Uruguay’s President Luis Lacalle Pou has generated international respect for the South American country, Foreign Minister Francisco Bustillo said on his return to Montevideo on Friday (24).
“We have always said that, despite Uruguay’s size, its voice is heard and respected, and this time it was heard and respected,” the foreign minister told the press.
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Lacalle Pou, Bustillo, and the rest of the delegation that traveled to Mexico and the United States to participate in the summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and the 76th General Assembly of the United Nations, arrived this Friday at Air Base No. 1.
There they were received by the interim president, Beatriz Argimón, and the secretary of the Presidency, Álvaro Delgado, to carry out the transfer of power regulated by the Constitution during the foreign travel of an incumbent president.
In addition to the “respect” achieved by Lacalle Pou with his interventions in both forums, Bustillo commented that Uruguay accumulated reasonable economic expectations for the country. “We hope that, shortly, there will be investments in several areas related to Uruguay’s tradition in services and information technology,” said the foreign minister.
The head of the Uruguayan diplomacy pointed out that, within 15 days, he will travel to Colombia to expand the “good harmony” that exists with the government of Iván Duque, with whom he expects to “sign agreements” on that occasion.
Regarding the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) that Uruguay expects to ratify soon with China, Bustillo emphasized that this “has awakened the interest of the United States” because, he said, “in this new reconfiguration of the international chessboard, in this struggle that has been taking place between China and the United States, the United States does not want to be left out.”
Lacalle Pou denounced last Wednesday, in his first speech at the United Nations since he assumed the Uruguayan Presidency on March 1, 2020, the “deficit and inequitable supply” of vaccines against Covid-19.
In addition to recognizing the work of researchers, doctors, and teachers to address the health crisis, he also referred to the differences between countries, mainly structural, in terms of democratic quality and freedom.
Days earlier, at the CELAC summit held in Mexico, he pointed to Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua as countries where “there is no full democracy”. “We must say with concern that we seriously see what is happening in Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela,” he said.