“Agenda with Brazil goes far beyond Itaipu”, says future Paraguayan chancellor

The future Minister of Foreign Affairs of Paraguay, Rubén Ramírez, said that the agenda of the incoming Santiago Peña government with Brazil will not focus only on the Itaipu binational hydroelectric plant, whose constitutive treaty completed 50 years in April, which opened the doors to the review of their agreements.

“Our agenda with Brazil goes far beyond Itaipu”, clarified the future Chancellor of Asunción in an interview with EFE.

In his opinion, the relationship with Brasilia involves issues such as trade, investment and development of logistics infrastructure.

“Paraguay is a landlocked country and (…) we want to take advantage of our geographic location in a timely and positive way, which is therefore fundamental for the construction of a real integration with Brazil”, he declared.

Peña, who won the elections on April 30 in Paraguay, traveled to Brasilia last May 16 to meet with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

On the occasion, the future Paraguayan president stated that the revision of the treaty that allowed his country and Brazil to jointly build and operate the Itaipu hydroelectric plant will not be limited to financial aspects and may extend to the entire document.

“We have a battery of options and proposals that we are going to put on the table as soon as President Santiago Peña takes office”, added Ramírez, for whom “Itaipu will be a development factor” for both countries.

The future chancellor also recalled that, in the light of the founding treaty, the negotiation of Annex C, which describes the financial bases and the provision of electricity services at Itaipu, “begins on August 13”.

“We have no urgency, we have no deadline to finish”, he commented.

In this sense, he expressed interest in reaching “the best agreement, one that is balanced”.

“For us, Itaipu is the main asset of the Republic of Paraguay; now, we cannot concentrate the entire agenda so rich, so wide, so extensive and relativize Itaipu. We believe that we are going to have very beneficial results for both countries”, predicted the diplomat.