The ex-president Julio Maria Sanguinetti He highlighted the good harmony with Argentina After the bilateral meeting held by the leaders Luis Lacalle Pou and Javier Milei, developed last Wednesday in the neighboring country.
In assessing the improvement in the bilateral relationship, Sanguinetti compared in dialogue with CNN Radio the “friendly gesture” of the Milei administration to authorize dredging 14 meters from the Port of Montevideo with the “aggressive port rivalry” of the previous government, headed by Alberto Fernandez.
The former president and referent of the Colorado Party He assured that “the bilateral relationship of Uruguay, so much with Argentina as Brazil, has been good”, while he contrasted that “the multilateral relationship in our beloved country has not been good, however Mercosur”.
On this point, he regretted the lack of a regional agenda in Milei’s trips. “He has not made visits to his neighbours and has made them to distant countries. It has been a policy in this regard quite different from usual,” he said.
The bilateral relationship and Mercosur
For this reason, Sanguinetti stressed that the bilateral meeting “went very well”, noting that it took place after a Mercosur summit where Milei He was absent, “which naturally deserved criticism or regret” from Lacalle Pou, admitted.
Regarding the regional bloc, the former president considered that “it is assumed that both the Milei government and the Lacalle government have a similar vision of a Mercosur more open, with greater competition in the world and the dismantling of some protectionist jurisprudences that still exist.”
However, the Colorado representative regretted that Argentina “is not active within Mercosur,” while he pointed out that the bloc should look in other directions. “We have to look towards the Trans-Pacific Partnership, We have to negotiate with China”, projection.
The delayed Mercosur-EU agreement
Finally, he referred to the lengthy Mercosur-EU agreement and stated that “the European Union “It has a very complex international relationship due to its own structure, since there are so many countries, so many diverse interests, that ultimately it is very difficult for them to relate to anyone outside their sphere.”
“In our case it is very clear. Every time we go to the firm, we end up with the obstacle of the French agriculture, which is a kind of sacred monster of the French collective imagination, because today farmers are not, either economically or politically, such a relevant mass,” he said about the recurring obstacles.
Therefore, when referring to the possibility of the agreement being signed, he admitted: “I look at this whole issue with skepticism. A year ago it was announced that the agreement had been signed, and the agreement is there, but in the end it is never achieved.”
Source: Ambito
