Javier Milei’s resounding threats that he will not maintain relations with China or Brazil (two of the main trading partners) because he considers them communists, nor with countries governed by dictatorships; plus his promises that his only two allies in foreign policy will be the United States and Israel, he put in boiling state to the Chancellery.
One month before the presidential elections, fifty diplomats of all ranks signed a kind of request, a statement of support for Sergio Massa. Released this Sunday, it is titled “For a pragmatic foreign policy at the service of the national interest, exports, Argentine work and productive investments.”
And it begins like this: “The undersigned, career diplomats of the Nation’s Foreign Service, support the candidacy of Sergio Massa for President of the Nation for Unión por la Patria.”
The list is headed by Gustavo Martínez Pandiani, career ambassador and current head of the Argentine headquarters in Switzerland. However, Martínez Pandiani is dedicated to Massa’s campaign on the external front, to the point that there is talk that if the Minister of Economy won the Presidency he would be his chancellor or his vice, if he appointed a politician to the first position. External relationships.
In fact, Martínez Pandiani entered politics fully during the latest edition of the Democracy and Development cycle carried out by Clarín at Malba. Connected by videoconference from Bern, Switzerland, he met the foreign policy representatives of Patricia Bullrich, Federico Pinedo, and Javier Milei, Diana Mondino, who were present at the museum.
Specifically, and with Massa’s endorsement, he criticized the fact that Bullrich and Milei said that if they are presidents they will stop Argentina’s incorporation into the BRICS group (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) recently announced by the outgoing government. “Partners are not chosen by who makes me personally feel more comfortable at your ex’s party nor by what ideology those countries have.” And he continued in the tone that the statement now adopted.
At the time, Pinedo also brought together 150 foreign policy leaders who supported Bullrich’s candidacy for president.. Among them, numerous diplomats.
As of Sunday, there are signatures from well-known Peronist or Kirchnerist ambassadors of the old guard, such as Javier Figueroa, Juan Valle Raleigh Gustavo Dzugala, Julio Lascano y Vedia, Santiago Villalba and Ana Sarrabayrouse.
The statement comes hours after the controversial message from Alberto Fernández’s ambassador in Madrid, Ricardo Alfonsín, who, in addition to calling radicals to vote for Massa, attacks Together for Change. This other statement is diplomatic. And the following are its important points:
They maintain that Massa “proposes a foreign service that functions as an efficient link with the world and contributes to conquering new markets to export Argentine work, identify business and investment opportunities, strengthen the value chain with a federal perspective and attract more tourism to the country.” .
They assure that “it promotes a pragmatic, strategic and realistic foreign policy where trade partners are not chosen by personal or ideological preferences, but by the interests and values of the Nation.”
They say that “it proposes a diplomacy with a practical perspective that generates better conditions for our firms to compete abroad, with embassies and consulates that pave the way so that more and more entrepreneurs, small, medium and large companies throughout the country can offer and compete with its products and services in the world.”
And that it endorses “principles and values present in our foreign policy since the recovery of democracy: human rights, gender and diversity policies, peaceful conflict resolution, disarmament, nuclear applications for peaceful purposes and defense of the democratic system.”
It promotes “a model for negotiating commercial, economic and political agreements that benefits workers, national businessmen and all Argentine men and women.”
And, among other issues, “it is irrevocably committed to the Question of the Malvinas, South Sandwich and South Georgia Islands as a national cause, as well as to the consolidation of our Antarctic and oceanic policy.”
It aims to consolidate “Mercosur and regional institutions, understanding Latin America and the Caribbean as our first space of belonging.”
