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The need for a shared and updated analysis of global and regional realities,
which is intelligent and, above all, linked to the actions that are necessary,
desirable and feasible from the perspective of national interests, is
today more necessary than ever for Argentina and other South American
countries.
This need stems from the fact that South American countries have advantages
that may be common to several of them and, ultimately, to all of them.
This makes it all the more necessary to carry out a continuous joint analysis
of the competitive advantages that make it possible to negotiate and develop
joint and cooperative actions, including the identification of the factors
and conditions with which to share those that already exist or could be
developed in the future.
The fact that the region has no nuclear weapons of its own, and has explicitly
refused to promote their development, is one of South America's current
competitive advantages. This fact must be both leveraged and preserved.
This is a concrete fact resulting from the relations between Argentina
and Brazil -the two South American countries that in principle were in
a position to develop them-as a result of the tripartite agreement on
water resources, concluded in 1979 between the two countries and Paraguay.
Diego Guelar, a great connoisseur of the regional and international reality
makes the following statement in an article he published in newspaper
Clarín on September 29, 2024: "...our ailing Mercosur, in
spite of its current paralysis, achieved an extraordinary feat that compensates
for any deficit: we are the sole Peace Zone on the planet. Argentina and
Brazil are the only Latin American countries with nuclear technology".
And he adds, rightly so, "we can make atomic bombs, but we have just
decided not to make them".
Other advantages are those that can be further achieved, for example,
in relation to environmental protection and in particular policies related
to the effects of climate change; to the quality and diversity of the
region's natural resources; and to its membership in the South Atlantic
and the South Pacific, including their respective bi-oceanic connections.
Perhaps the time has come to initiate and develop a genuine common reflection,
focused on the actions of the countries of South America. The above-mentioned
issues could be included in a shared work agenda for the existing regional
institutions or those that could be created in the future. This should
not exclude the possibility that the agreements to be designed include
the participation of other countries belonging to the wider Latin American
region.
All of this contributes to the added value that the South American region
can continue to acquire through an active agenda of relations with other
regions. This is the case of the long-delayed cooperation between Mercosur
-undoubtedly perceived as a key region of South America - and the European
Union, many of whose countries have played a key role in the historical
development of South American countries.
Hence the importance of the fact that we could eventually be facing a
tipping point in the protracted bi-regional negotiation. In this regard,
it should be noted that, in a very recent meeting between Mercosur and
the European Union which took place in New York on September 27, 2024,
a plan was defined to continue and, if possible, conclude the lengthy
negotiation between the two blocs, which has been going on for approximately
twenty-five years since its inception.
The meeting in New York was attended by the Mercosur foreign ministers
(in two cases by their representatives) and, on the European side, by
Josep Borrell, the European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs.
The possibility that the agreement could finally be signed on the occasion
of the G20 Summit, to be held next November in Rio de Janeiro, should
not be ruled out.
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