MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

“Closer political links with Brazil” can be expected if CFK is re-elected

Apparently the two ladies get on very well

The most certain re-election of Cristina Fernandez as Argentina president on Sunday 23 October is expected to signal more intense and closer relations with Brazil, expanding to other foreign affairs issues and working on a shared international agenda according to analysts from both countries .

Janina Onuki, University of Sao Paulo International Business School coordinator believes that the governments of Cristina Fernandez (in office since 2007) and Dilma Rousseff will not only limit themselves to Mercosur and Brazil issues but “will expand to Latin American affairs”.

And this will happen even with the absence of political mentors such as former president Lula da Silva in the case of Ms Rousseff and of former president and deceased (2010) husband of Cristina Fernandez, Nestor Kirchner.

Melisa Deciancio chief analyst from Argentina’s Social Sciences Latin American Faculty, Flacso, says “we could be in a moment where the economic and political interests of both countries can be better addressed with a more coordinated relation”.

“The trade-partners’ relation when Lula da Silva and Nestor Kirchner first arrived to office has become a coordinated relation which goes beyond mere economic issues and reflects in international policy” adds Deciancio, citing as examples previously agreed joint presentations, by Brasilia and Buenos Aires in the G20 summits.

“The positions held by both countries in the continent requires that coordination in policies, particularly with an international scenario which is becoming increasingly challenging and defiant”, added Deciancio.

Argentine solicitor Alberto Sosa from the non government organization Amersur which is a member of Mercosur Social-economic consulting forum agrees with Deciancio since Brazil and Argentina “must share an agenda to better negotiate with both government and private heavy weights, including China and the more traditional global corporations”.

But Sosa also believes that to continue advancing the two countries will have to give priority among other things to dialogue and political understanding so as to ensure democratic stability among neighbours supported by the creation of a regional development bank.

“Brazil and Argentina have tried to establish an alternative power in the region” said Sosa who underlines that “currently Buenos Aires accepts sharing the leadership of Brazil” even when this is displayed in an ‘asymmetrical way’

However International Relations Professor Gisela Pereyra Dovt from the University of Rosario recalled that those links somehow became tense at the beginning of President Rousseff’s mandate when Antonio Patriota was nominated as Foreign Affairs minister.

“With the naming of the current minister, in academic circles it was believed Patriota, contrary to his predecessor Celso Amorim, would seek closer links with Washington and a gradual distancing of Brazil from the region”.

A fear which was rapidly brushed aside when Argentina was chosen as the first country to visit by the recently sworn in Brazilian president, said Pereyra Dovat.
“In my opinion the 15 treaties and accords signed during Dilma’s trip to Argentina, in February, with just a month in office is but a sample of the fine tuning between the two lady presidents”.