EU and Latin America trying to get closer despite differences over Ukraine

Leaders of European Union countries are meeting with their counterparts from Latin America and the Caribbean for two days in Brussels to try to strengthen their ties, especially over the war in Ukraine.

“I welcome the return of Brazil as a major player on the international scene,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen welcomed Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Monday morning. “We need our close friends in these uncertain times,” he added.

It is the third EU-Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) summit. The last one happened in 2015, and both sides are trying to make up for lost time. But reconciliation is not without difficulties.

Disagreements arose from the very beginning of negotiations on the joint declaration, in particular because of the desire of the Europeans to mention the war started by Russia in Ukraine.

The EU is trying to garner as much international support as possible against Moscow, but the 33 Latin American and Caribbean countries do not have a common position on the issue, and do not want to see it monopolize the discussion on the topic.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s intervention at the summit, at one time anticipated, ultimately did not take place.

“Our aim (…) is that all countries in the region support Ukraine, at least in their declarations to provide support to the Ukrainian government, to point out the violations of international law with which the country is faced “, we say Elise.

Brazil has refused to supply arms to Ukraine or impose sanctions on Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

Lula has courted controversy by repeatedly saying that he shared responsibility for the conflict, even as he condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine. At the same time, countries like Cuba and Venezuela remain allies of Moscow.

In a brief statement Monday morning, Brazil’s president didn’t say a word about Ukraine, focusing his speech on the climate issue.

In contrast to the policies of his predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, the fight against the exploitation of the Amazon rainforest is one of the main objectives of his government.

It aims to end illegal deforestation by 2030.

“The summit is not going to be easy,” said Mexican Foreign Minister Alicia Barcena, who will represent her country in Brussels in place of leftist President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

He cited a recent European Parliament resolution condemning the human rights situation in Cuba as one of the difficult topics.

The EU has particularly strained relations with Daniel Ortega’s Nicaragua since the suppression of 2018 demonstrations, and Nicolás Maduro’s subsequent re-election with Venezuela.

Some CELAC countries also requested that the issue of compensation for the slave trade be mentioned in the final declaration.

– Prestigious Lithium –

On the trade side, the question of a free trade agreement with MERCOSUR (Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay) will loom large over the summit, even if no breakthrough is expected.

The agreement, concluded in 2019, was not ratified after more than 20 years of complex negotiations, particularly due to European concerns over Jair Bolsonaro’s environmental policies.

Spain, which holds the EU presidency for six months, is hoping for ratification by the end of the year.

Prior to the summit, Ursula von der Leyen visited the region (Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Mexico) in mid-June, where she announced ten billion Euros of European investment through the “Global Gateway” strategy, with the intention of countering the impact. Announced an increase to Euro. of the Chinese “New Silk Roads” program.

He also announced the signing of an MoU with Argentina on raw materials, especially lithium, needed to manufacture batteries for electric cars.

An essential metal for the EU’s decarbonisation strategy, which will ban the sale of new cars with combustion engines from 2035.

Argentina is one of the main world producers of this ore and forms the “lithium triangle” with Bolivia and Chile, with approximately 56% of world reserves.

A memorandum of understanding with Chile is also supposed to be signed on Tuesday in the presence of President Gabriel Boric.

Bolivia announced in late June that China and Russia would invest $1.4 billion to open two lithium mines in the country.

As well as this meeting of about sixty heads of state and government, the People’s Summit will take place in Brussels on Tuesday and Wednesday, bringing together about a hundred movements, left-wing parties and associations from both sides of the Atlantic.