[1/3]French President Emmanuel Macron speaks with Venezuela’s Vice-President Delcy Rodriguez, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Colombian President Gustavo Petro and Argentine President Alberto Fernandez during a meeting on the sidelines of a European Union and Community of… Read more
BRUSSELS, July 18 (Portal) – Leaders of Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean on Tuesday proclaimed a new era of increased political and economic cooperation, but their summit was marred by rows over how to deal with Russia’s war in Ukraine should be.
The meeting of some 50 leaders from the three regions in Brussels should revitalize ties as the EU seeks to reshape its international alliances in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and growing skepticism about China.
“It is an auspicious and optimistic page opening in relations between Latin America, the Caribbean and the European Union,” said Charles Michel, President of the European Council, which brings together the EU’s national leaders.
But while leaders at the summit declared that they share common values such as democracy, human rights and the rule of law, their arguments over the war in Ukraine highlighted differences on an issue of paramount importance to Europe.
EU officials had hoped the summit with the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) would unequivocally regret Russia for invading its neighbor in February last year. However, Russia was not mentioned in the final statement.
The statement expressed “deep concern at the ongoing war against Ukraine.” The war was said to cause immense human suffering, stunt growth, increase inflation, disrupt supply chains and increase energy and food insecurity.
Even that language was too strong for Nicaragua, ruled by former left-wing guerrilla fighter Daniel Ortega.
The statement said one country disagreed with a paragraph of the statement. Officials said this referred to Nicaragua and the paragraph about Ukraine.
Argentine President Alberto Fernandez stressed that the summit was about much more than just the war and that it would address issues such as climate change, trade and the fair use of natural resources.
He also recalled that many Latin American countries had condemned Russia for the invasion.
“Of course there were different voices, but it wasn’t the main item on our agenda,” he told reporters.
“It wasn’t that Latin America hesitated to speak out against the war in Ukraine, we did that in the United Nations,” he added.
Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, reiterated this point. But he also said that the West must understand the accusations of hypocrisy in its attitude towards Ukraine.
“In the past we’ve had a lot of great power activity against smaller, poorer countries – less powerful countries,” he said, citing experiences in Latin America and the Caribbean.
“If you bring up certain principles of non-interference in internal affairs, use of force and everything else, they will ignore you,” said Gonsalves, whose country holds the CELAC presidency.
“Nevertheless, it is some of these countries that are applying these very principles in Ukraine,” he said. “We have to get rid of the hypocrisy.”
To address some of those concerns, the statement said that Europe’s past through the slave trade had caused “untold suffering” to millions of people and pointed to the need for redress for what it called “crimes against humanity”.
EU DRIVE
The EU’s efforts to increase cooperation with Latin America reflect a desire to develop new sources of energy and critical raw materials while the country isolates Russia, and to diversify its supply chains to be less dependent on China.
However, EU leaders have stressed that they also want a closer political partnership and want to ensure that partner countries derive equitable benefits from resource extraction on their territory and that the environment is protected.
“We want our investments to meet the highest environmental and social standards,” said EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
On the sidelines of the summit, the EU signed an agreement on critical raw materials with Chile and two pacts on energy cooperation with Argentina and Uruguay.
Von der Leyen said she was “very confident” that the EU would finalize negotiations on a trade deal with South America’s Mercosur bloc and on an updated version of its trade deal with Mexico in the coming months.
Additional reporting from Catarina Demony, Belen Carreno and Sarah Morland; Edited by William Maclean
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