Mercosur Summit in Rio will ratify Bolivia’s entry and agreement with Singapore

The LXIII Summit of Presidents of the Mercosur (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay) began this Thursday in Rio de Janeiro, where they will ratify the incorporation of Bolivia, sign a free trade agreement with Singapore and they will debate the negotiations with the European Union (EU).

The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silvais the host of an event in which Brazil will pass the pro tempore presidency of the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) to Paraguay, at the Museu do Amanhã in Rio.

Lula is accompanied by the heads of state of Argentina, Alberto Fernández, who this Sunday will hand over power to the ultraliberal Javier Milei; from Paraguay, Santiago Peña; from Uruguay, Luis Lacalle Pou, and from Bolivia, Luis Arce.

In the opening, Lula said that it is about “a summit of farewell and arrival”in reference to the end of Fernández’s term and the inauguration of his successor, Javier Milei.

The rulers will analyze the status of trade negotiations with the EU after the umpteenth disagreement between both blocks, which has blocked the final signing of a text that has been negotiated for more than two decades.

Brazil, which has held the rotating presidency in the last semester, hoped to complete the process this year, but the rejection of several European countries, led by France, and the reluctance of Argentina to commit to an agreement that it considers “obsolete”, On the eve of the transfer of power to Milei, they prevented it.

The largest power in Latin America once again emphatically defended the continuation of negotiations with the Twenty-Seven, with whom a general political agreement was reached in 2019, at the meeting of Foreign and Economy Ministers of the Mercosur held on Wednesday.

On the other hand, the founding partners will sign the letter of ratification of accession of Bolivia, which was already an associated State and which from now on will have a period of four years to adapt its legislation to the regulations of the customs union founded in 1991.

In addition, they will sanction a commercial agreement with the Republic of Singaporethe first in its history with a country in the Asia-Pacific region.

There is also expectation about possible reactions of the presidents to the campaign of the Government of Nicolás Maduro to annex the Essequibo region to the Venezuelan map, an area of ​​160,000 square kilometers controlled by Guyana, rich in oil and minerals, and whose possession Caracas has claimed for some time. more than a century.

Venezuela has been suspended as a member of Mercosur since 2017 for an alleged “breakdown of the democratic order.”