MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazilian Ambassador returning to BA next week

Things between Brazil and Argentina are not the same as between Argentina and Spain or Bolivia, Bitelli explained

Brazil's Ambassador to Buenos Aires Julio Bitelli Tuesday downplayed the importance of the not-so-good relationship between Presidents Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Javier Milei and insisted he would be returning to his post in the Argentine capital next week after being summoned during the weekend for consultations with Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira.

Bitelli made those rermarks during a telephone interview with a Buenos Aires broadcaster. “There is no drama,” he argued. However, it was reported that Brazil does intend to reconfigure its diplomatic ties with Milei's Argentina after the latter called Lula names during his 2023 campaign, refused to apologize for that, and even skipped a Mercosur Summit earlier this month to avoid a showdown with the Workers' Party (PT) leader.

Bitelli said his snap trip was to “come to Brasilia to talk to the President, the Chancellor and other ministers to see how to carry forward the relationship with Argentina, which is changing in a very deep way and whose relationship with Brazil is strategic.”

“A call for traditional consultations has no return date and next week I am in Buenos Aires,” he added.

Bitelli also maintained that the relationship between the two countries remained strong despite the opposing viewpoints between the two presidents, who “have different world views, ideologies and perspectives.” The idea is “to take the relationship forward beyond the issues between the presidents,” the diplomat also explained while highlighting his good rapport with Cabinet Chief Guillermo Francos and Foreign Minister Diana Mondino.

“Today Argentina is changing,” Bitelli went on. “There is a profound change in economic terms, in terms of state management and, because of the importance of the relationship, the idea is to come, talk a little about what is happening and seek, in this new scenario, ways to further deepen relations,” he elaborated.

Regarding a possible between Milei and Lula to soothe things out, Bitelli was clear that “they will meet when they have to meet.”

Bitelli's summons came a week after Milei chose to dodge the Mercosur Summit in Asunción and travel instead to the Brazilian State of Santa Catarina for a conservative gathering with former President Jair Bolsonaro and other leaders from that political space, opposite that of Lula.

While Clarín had reported that the Argentine Foreign Ministry had learned of Bitelli's trip through the media, Bitelli explained he had told Mondino about it. The Brazilian dignitary also noted that things between his country and Argentina were different than between the latter and Bolivia and Spain. Madrid has already pulled its ambassador from Buenos Aires after Milei badmouthed Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and his wife during a conservative gathering in the Spanish capital, while Bolivia's representative has also been recalled following Milei's allegations that the June 26 attempted coup d'état in La Paz had been arranged by President Luis Arce Catacora to boost his dwindling public image.

According to unnamed Brazilian diplomatic sources quoted by La Nación, Bitelli was instructed to “preserve the state of relations as State relations.”