Brazil pledged to work with Argentina to reinstate the Zone of Peace and Cooperation of the South Atlantic (Zopacas), a key agreement to encourage cooperation in security and defense in the region, given the concern about the militarization of the Malvinas Islands (Falkland Islands) by the United Kingdom.
The understanding was reached during the visit to Brasilia of the Secretary of Malvinas, Antarctica, and South Atlantic of the Foreign Ministry, Guillermo Carmona, who had two days of high-level meetings, including a lunch with the Brazilian Foreign Minister, Carlos França.
“In all areas, Brazil expressed the continuity of the line of support it has historically had for the Malvinas issue. There was a ratification that we value very much,” said Carmona shortly after he met with França.
The Secretary of Malvinas received from the hands of Jair Bolsonaro’s Chancellor a copy of “Brazil in the Falklands war: between two fires”, a book that recounts the Brazilian participation in the conflict.
Beyond the gesture, Carmona valued that the Brazilian officials expressed “a common interest” in the Zopacas “achieving a greater degree of institutionality”.
“Argentina has expressed interest for many reasons, but especially because of the concern about the militarization in the Malvinas with the illegal invasion of the United Kingdom”, said the Foreign Ministry official.
The Zopacas, created within the scope of the UN in 1986 under the Brazilian initiative, has not held foreign ministers’ meetings since 2013, a sign of paralysis. It includes Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and 21 African countries bordering the South Atlantic and aims to encourage scientific exchange and collaboration in security and defense.
A new meeting will be held in Cape Verde in the last week of November, and both Brazil and Argentina have already committed to sending high-level officials.
Although it was not the central issue of the visit, the Mendoza politician took advantage of the visit to reiterate Argentina’s concern about the landing of British military flights on Brazilian soil, which continued to Malvinas.
Argentina’s ambassador to Brazil, Daniel Scioli, had presented a formal complaint to the Brazilian Foreign Ministry in January, expressing concern about a significant increase in British military flights.
“The United Kingdom alleges that the nature of these flights is humanitarian. Argentina maintains a request that the criteria to be applied should be restrictive, that it should really be verified that it is humanitarian. We talked about it with the Secretary for the Americas of Itamaraty -Michel Arslanian- and there was a positive expression to attend the request,” explained Carmona.
The Secretary of Malvinas arrived in the Brazilian capital as the first stop of a tour that will take him this month to Chile and then to Uruguay, destinations where he will seek to gather more support to put the claim over the archipelago in the international limelight.
In the Brazilian capital, Carmona also held a meeting with the Secretary of Strategic Affairs, Admiral Flavio Viana Rocha, one of Bolsonaro’s leading military advisors who has been vital in the rapprochement in the relationship between the administrations of President Alberto Fernández and Bolsonaro.
The arrival of Carmona, a Mendoza native with a stint in Congress as a deputy for Kirchnerism between 2011 and 2019, coincided with the inauguration of the Malvinas Argentinas hall at the Argentine embassy in Brazil. The Chargé d’Affaires, Pablo De Angelis, Itamaraty officials, and diplomats from foreign embassies attended the ceremony.
The embassy’s main hall in Brasilia will have on its walls a map of Malvinas and a copy of the letter sent by the Brazilian government in 1833 to Argentina as a sign of solidarity for the British usurpation.
Carmona said, finally, that, 40 years after the Malvinas war and while a conflict is being fought in Ukraine following Russia’s invasion, the conjuncture offers an opportunity for the discussion over Malvinas, one of the 17 pending cases of colonialism, to be internationally installed.
“With the war in Ukraine, Western powers are talking about the value of territorial integrity and the seriousness of its violation,” said Carmona. “This situation gives us the reason and is an opportunity for us to point out that the United Kingdom, just as it demands respect for the principle for Ukraine, must respect it in Argentina.”
With information from La Nación