
Argentine President Javier Milei urged the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) on Thursday to abandon its destructive inertia, as he hosted the bloc's Summit in Buenos Aires. He also underscored his government's commitment to the path of freedom, warning that we will embark on it, either accompanied or alone.

The Southern Common Market's (Mercosur) Summit in Buenos Aires kicked off Wednesday with the announcement by Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay of a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) finalized with the European Free Trade Association (EFTA - Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland). The documents are to be signed in the coming months.

Buenos Aires Judge Jorge Gorini Wednesday acquiesced to a request from former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner's (CFK) legal team and authorized former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to visit her Thursday at the apartment where she is serving a six-year sentence for corruption under house arrest.

The Southern Common Market (Mercosur) countries will be allowed to add 50 product types to the bloc's common external tariff-free items, per an agreement signed in Montevideo.

Major business users of the Paraná-Paraguay Waterway (agro-exporters, industrialists, and port operators) have issued a joint statement supporting the Argentine government's bidding process for a private operator of the Trunk Waterway. They urge all stakeholders to channel their proposals, including those related to tariffs and environmental impact, through the established technical dialogue tables to avoid hindering consensus.

JetSMART Airlines launched its first direct flight from Recife to Buenos Aires on Tuesday, marking the carrier's entry into Brazil's Northeast region and expanding its international routes in South America's largest country to ten services, across five cities (Rio de Janeiro, Florianópolis, Nova Iguaçu, São Paulo, and Recife).

Argentine President Javier Milei is preparing to host the South American Common Market (Mercosur) Summit Wednesday and Thursday in Buenos Aires, during which he will have to welcome his Brazilian colleague Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, with whom he does not see eye to eye after calling him names during the 2023 campaign.

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani told his Uruguayan counterpart Mario Lubetkin Friday that Rome favored finalizing the free trade agreement between the European Union (EU) and the South American Common Market (Mercosur), provided Europe's agricultural sector is protected, thus aligning with concerns from France and others about South American imports.

Presidents Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil Wednesday expressed their solidarity with former Argentine head of State Cristina Fernández de Kirchner after her sentence to six years under house arrest for corruption in the so-called Vialidad scandal was upheld earlier this week.

Before flying to Israel, Argentine President Javier Milei met in Nice this week with his French colleague Emmanuel Macron during the United Nations Oceans Conference to discuss the long-stalled Mercosur-European Union trade agreement.