MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

New Brazilian Foreign Secretary

Celso Lafer, an academic and Mercosur enthusiast will become Brazil's next Minister of Foreign Affairs January 29th. He will take office from Luiz Felipe Lampreia who has held the Itamaraty job since president Fernando Cardoso was first elected in 1995.

Mr. Lafer is a respected intellectual, world known for his books on foreign affairs and is considered a close friend of Argentina since the seventies when he wrote his first book: "Argentina and Brazil in the international relations system". The co-author was Félix Peña, Argentine Foreign Trade Secretary during the Menem administration.

In the book he anticipates that Argentina and Brazil need to integrate for the sake of a balanced geopolitical Latinamerica.

In a recent follow up of his original idea, a paper written specifically for Oxford University, Mr. Lafer argues that "the existence of some serious economic disputes in Mercosur do not represent a strategic risk for the bilateral relation, but is something inevitable for the Argentine-Brazilian integration process".

Mr. Lafer previously held other cabinet jobs, Development Minister and Brazil's Trade Representative in the Geneva World Trade Organization talks. He was also Minister of Foreign Affairs under former president Fernando Collor.

Brazilian political sources indicated that Mr. Lafer is good news for Mercosur: "Lampreia never fell completely for Mercosur and regional politics, but Lafer believes Argentina is vital for Brazilian foreign policy, and is more co temporizer".

However the same sources indicated that Mr. Lafer has serious challenges and negotiations ahead, (Mercosur, Americas Free Trade Association and the European Union), and "he's not as tough as Lampreia, who proved almost unbeatable".

Mr. Lafer is also a close friend of Argentine historian and analyst Natalio Botana and veteran diplomat Carlos Ortíz de Rosas.

Mr. Lampreia leaves government to for academia and to head an International Studies Center in Rio do Janeiro.

Another candidate for the job was Brazilian Ambassador in Argentina, Sebastiao do Rego Barros, but apparently he declined the offering.