This Friday (2), the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Mercosur countries again meet in Buenos Aires. The meeting will take place less than a month after their meeting in the Argentine capital, as the country ruled by Javier Milei presides over the bloc this semester – the presidency is in alphabetical, semiannual and rotating order.
This week, chancers should further tune the details for the possible agreements to be announced at the meeting of Mercosur presidents on July 3rd in Buenos Aires. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has already confirmed presence, according to diplomatic sources.
Milei will be the host of the meeting. He does not speak to President Lula, to whom, during the campaign to Casa Rosada, he sent criticism – “communist” and “corrupt”.
The Argentine also made strong criticisms against Mercosur, defining the block as “a prison.” However, according to dilplomatic sources from both countries, Argentina would no longer give up on the intention to signing a free trade agreement with the United States.
A commercial preference agreement from Argentina with the United States, without having to leave Mercosur, was the balanced solution to keep the country in the block also formed by Paraguay and Uruguay.
The understanding occurred at the moment the world follows (and feels the effects) of commercial dispute between the United States and China, and the European Union, in this international context, looks again, “more attention,” as a diplomatic source said, to the agreement with Mercosur.