Uruguayan president Jose Mujica strongly defended the incorporation of Venezuela to Mercosur and forecasted that in a short time the country will become Uruguay’s third trade associate, behind China and Brazil.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has an ambitious plan to cut his country's 3 billion dollars annual import bill for beef. He even aspires to return Russia's beef industry to its pre-revolutionary stature.
Benjamin Hockin in the 2008 Beijing Olympics was part of the British team, now however he will be the standard-bearer for Paraguay in Friday’s London summer games opening and convinced he will receive an even greater support.
Venezuelan President met on Wednesday with a committee from the Brazilian government to discuss mechanisms to speed the full integration of the country to the regional block. Brazil currently holds the Mercosur rotating chair.
The suspension of Paraguay and the intent to incorporate Venezuela to Mercosur represent a threat to the regional integration process, said the Mercosur Federation of Rural Associations, Farm, currently meeting in Santiago de Chile.
Paraguayan ambassador Emilio Gimenez Franco presented last July 11 his credential letters to French president Francois Hollande, making him the country’s representative before Paris.
Brazil’s influential newspaper O Estado de Sao Paulo blasted Brazilian foreign policy and its handling of the Paraguayan political crisis. In an opinion column under the heading “Dilma’s anti-diplomacy” the newspaper argues that the current administration is politicizing foreign policy, the same way that her predecessor, Lula da Silva.
Paraguayan president Federico Franco said on Monday that the only coup, if that is the word, was implemented by Mercosur from the moment they left Paraguay out of the decision to incorporate Venezuela as a full member of the group.
Paraguay is prepared to demand Mercosur co-members before the International Court of Justice at The Hague for what it describes as “violation of signed treaties” and sustained “international isolation” following the rejection of an appeal to have sanctions lifted.
Paraguay will not be sanctioned by the Organization of American States, said the country’s ambassador on Friday following an informal meeting behind closed doors of OAS Permanent Council.