MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Pacific accord “no conflict” for Mercosur or Unasur, says Brazil

Unasur Secretary General Emma Mejia with Brazil’s Patriota (Photo EFE)

The pro-business block initiative that will be signed this week by Pacific countries leaders from Chile, Peru, Mexico and Colombia presents no potential conflict for Brazil or Mercosur said on Monday the Brazilian Foreign Affairs ministry.

“We see no conflict” with this initiative said Brazil’s Foreign Affairs minister Antonio Patriota, quoted by his spokesperson Tovar da Silva Nunes. “There’s a Union of South American Nations, Unasur, and those countries associating under the Pacific accord, are also part of our groupings”.

Next Thursday the presidents of Peru, Chile, Colombia and Mexico will be signing in Lima the Pacific Accord which aspires to promote joint policies to conquer new markets, particularly in Asia.

“I don’t see Colombia trying to create an alternative to Unasur or Mercosur”, said Marco Aurelio García, Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff main foreign policy advisor, a job he also held under former leader Lula da Silva.

Garcia’s statements were published in Folha de Sao Paulo following the newspaper’s interpretation of the Pacific Accord as a “liberal block” sponsored by Colombia and Peru to counter “Brazil’s hegemony in the region” and Mercosur’ influence as well as an antidote to Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez ALBA, the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of our Americas.

Maria Emma Mejia, who recently took office as Unasur Secretary General, (and a former Colombian Foreign Affairs minister) also reacted positively to the Pacific initiative saying that the project “only adds” and is “evidence of the dynamism of the region”.

Following her visit to Chile and Ecuador, Ms Mejia met with Patriota in Brazil where she is scheduled to participate of the South American Council on Infrastructure and Planning, Cosiplan.

Infrastructure investment is one of Brazil’s priorities for Unasur particularly promoting the participation in those undertakings of out of the region countries such as China, according to the Brazilian diplomacy.

Ms Mejia announced she would be visiting the twelve country members of Unasur and her team will be working together with that of Venezuela’s Ali Rodriguez who was also nominated to share the Unasur post and will be taking over in a year’s time.