Argentina’s Criticisms of Mercosur Worry Brazil, Says Foreign Minister

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – In a presentation given on Wednesday, November 27th, Chancellor Ernesto Araújo said that the Brazilian government is concerned about the signals sent by the new Argentinian government in connection with the essence of Mercosur.

“If the second member of Mercosur has such an incompatible vision with what we believe to be the essence of Mercosur, we need to think about it,” Araújo said.

The new Argentinian government will take office on December 10th replacing current President Mauricio Macri. Alberto Fernández, Argentina’s future president, and Cristina Kirchner, Argentina’s vice president, were elected in the first round on October 27th.

“Of course they haven’t taken office [yet], we have to see what message they will bring,” Ernesto Araújo added.

The Brazilian foreign minister cited, as signs that threaten the essence of Mercosur, information from Argentina that the new government will question not only bilateral trade with Brazil but also the extent of the agreement reached with the European Union.

According to him, the questions regarding bilateral trade can be “interpreted as intramercosur barriers”.

“It is not that we want to have a bad relationship with Argentina, we want to have the best possible relationship, it is a brother country, it always will be, regardless of the government,” added Ernesto Araújo.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ernesto Araújo, was invited by the Culture Committee of the Chamber of Deputies to speak about the policy of promoting Brazilian culture abroad. He listed projects aimed at projecting Brazilian artists abroad in all fields, including music, ballet, theater and fine arts.

Foreign Policy

On the subject of foreign policy, the Chancellor answered questions from legislators about the reasons why Brazil is guided more by ideology rather than by its traditional position if it is an international player always called upon to mediate conflicts and differences in interests between nations.

The minister replied that most of these critiques are “superficial and fierce in the perception of what Brazilian foreign policy is”. According to him, many of these criticisms are based on the premise that Brazil is automatically aligned with the United States. “This does not exist,” he said. “There is a relationship based on Brazilian interests”, the minister added.

He said the criticisms represent an “inadequate understanding of what foreign policy is”. As he said, many critics write articles without adequately grounding their reasons, which represents “insufficient intellectual preparation to understand Brazilian foreign policy, both in the economic part and in the sphere of deeper convictions”.

In his presentation, Chancellor Ernesto Araújo added that Brazil wants to have the best possible relationship with all countries. “This is a fundamental principle,” he said.