This week, the Argentine government made an urgent request to Brazil for gas supplies to avoid the collapse of its energy system. The request was granted after a few hours of suspense, in which the letter of credit that Petrobras should accept was analyzed in order to release energy to the neighboring country. Authorities from the Argentine energy sector called the Brazilian embassy in Buenos Aires, who spoke with Chancellor Mauro Vieira and the Minister of Mines and Energy, Alexandre Silveira. The distress call was answered and a ship with around 44 million cubic meters of gas was released.
In Argentina, gas is fuel for automobiles and also essential energy for the industrial and residential sectors. The government had already decided that the priority would be homes – gas, in this case, is used for cooking and heating. The limited supply of gas was already a concern for the Argentine government, but it became an alarm with the early arrival of the cold, this month of May, and the use of fuel reserves beyond what was planned for this time of year.
The Brazilian government stated that “everything was done within the rules of the Brazilian company”, that the aid “does not affect Brazilian supplies” and also recalled that Brazil and Argentina have a “strategic relationship” that involves the energy sector, among others. pillars. For years now, the two countries have helped each other when there is a lack of electricity in one and a surplus in the other, which can send its bonanza to combat the difficult times of its neighbor.
Despite the lack of dialogue between presidents Lula and Milei, the bilateral relationship has maintained its fluidity. Shortly after the calamity caused by the waters in Rio Grande do Sul, Argentina, governed by Milei, was one of the first countries to offer collaboration in the face of the catastrophe that left thousands homeless and dozens dead. The Minister of Defense, Luis Petri, accompanied the Brazilian ambassador in Buenos Aires, Julio Bitelli, in boarding equipment for water purification, which was sent to the Brazilian state on an Argentine Air Force plane.
In these almost six months of the Milei government, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mauro Vieira, has already met his Argentine colleague Diana Mondino four times. She is seen as “a firefighter” in Argentine foreign policy and, despite her controversial statements, has been praised in the Foreign Ministry.
The expectation now is to find out when Lula and Milei will speak and whether the setting for the meeting – or, at least, the collision – will be the meeting of Mercosur presidents on July 7th in Asunción, Paraguay. Milei sent two letters to Lula. But she did not apologize for the attacks she made against the Brazilian president during the Argentine presidential campaign. Behind the scenes in the Brazilian government, they already know that he will hardly apologize, as Lula wants. And, apparently, life continues in the bilateral relationship, which already saw the distance between the presidents when Bolsonaro was at Palácio do Planalto and Alberto Fernández at Casa Rosada.