Argentina had high expectations for Lula, says ambassador – 07/15/2023 – World

Surrounded by a small piece of Brasilia in Buenos Aires, with wooden walls and tiles by Athos Bulcão, new ambassador Julio Bitelli says Brazil needs to have a “sincere conversation” with Argentina about what can and cannot be done to help the neighbor to come out of yet another economic crisis.

“Perhaps there was a level of expectations in Argentina a little above what would be reasonable”, he tells the Sheet on President Alberto Fernández’s distress calls to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT). Although there is a political will to collaborate, he says that the means to do so will be based on technical criteria.

Bitelli, a figure close to Chancellor Mauro Vieira, foresees intense years at the helm of the embassy, ​​where he will have the mission of resuming the priority of relations between the two countries against the backdrop of the Argentine elections in October. Even if the Macrista opposition wins, he says that proximity must be maintained.

What are your management priorities?
The most important thing now is to make up for lost time in recent years. It is a very important relationship that ended up being neglected. Now, for both countries, the bilateral relationship has become a priority again, and the embassy will try to respond to that.

I also want to carry out regional diplomacy, go to the provinces and receive the Brazilian states. Among border countries, this relationship at the subnational level is very important.

What happens to the relationship between Brazil and Argentina if the opposition wins the elections in October?
What I noticed here, of all the candidates who have a real chance of winning, is that the priority of the relationship with Brazil will continue. She will not suffer, regardless of the outcome. The relationship is between States, the affinities between rulers are circumstantial.

That even if Javier Milei’s ultra-right wins?
What research is currently showing is that this possibility is becoming more remote.

When Jair Bolsonaro (PL) won in Brazil, it was not like that, relations were quite distant at the beginning.
This was an outlier. He broke a logic that shouldn’t have been broken. We cannot say that this will never happen again, but it is clearly a point completely outside the curve.

You said on Saturday to the Senate that one of your challenges is to recover the fluidity of bilateral trade between the two countries. What are the obstacles to this trade?
Argentina is going through an admittedly complicated economic crisis. Our expectation is that this crisis can be overcome, and this will have a positive impact on bilateral trade.

On the other hand, Brazil has been losing space, especially to China, and it is necessary to find ways to recover that dynamism in trade that we have lost in recent times. This trade relationship is very important because it is based on higher added value products than any other country.

What is the status of the aid promised by Lula to Argentina? Is support via Brics ruled out?
Nothing is ruled out. We are studying ways to carry out this aid, which is a search for financing so that Brazilian exporters —and this needs to be very clear— can continue selling to Argentina, which currently has a shortage of dollars that complicates bilateral trade. .

The formulas to do this are being studied, which will be based on solid technical, legal and legal criteria. The political will to provide this aid is evident. President Lula, the Minister of Finance [Fernando Haddad] and the chancellor [Mauro Vieira] made that very clear.

So far, in practice, Fernández has come back empty-handed. Does this damage the relationship in any way?
No, it is important that we always have a very sincere conversation with Argentines about what is possible or not. Perhaps there was a level of expectations in Argentina a little above what would be reasonable. What the Brazilian government will continue to do is seek these formulas, as long as they are technically feasible.

What happens to Brazil if Argentina goes bankrupt?
It’s terrible for Brazil. We are very important commercial partners, political partners. What history shows is that Brazil is interested in a prosperous Argentina, as well as a prosperous South America. Problems that affect Argentina will not fail to have repercussions for Brazil. Due to the level of trade, the quality of political dialogue, the evolution of Mercosur, which is our focus on regional integration.

The last Mercosur summit highlighted divergences between Brazil and Argentina versus Uruguay and Paraguay.
It’s not exactly that division. What we have today is Uruguay with a different perspective, objectives that are not exactly consistent with the functioning of Mercosur, and a permanent dialogue to reconcile things.

The Brazilian interest is that Mercosur is not harmed and that it can be strengthened, also because we are in an important moment of negotiations in the external agenda, in the negotiation with the European Union.

Mr. he has also worked at posts in the US, Bolivia, Tunisia, Colombia and Morocco. Could Brazil’s current position on the Ukrainian War make other relations difficult?
No, I think there is a better understanding of the Brazilian position each time, which is a very solid position based on the need for dialogue and the desire to stop hostilities. It is natural that Brazil has an autonomous position in relation to the problems on the international agenda and that it does not automatically align itself with this or that group of countries.

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X-ray | Julio Glinternick Bitelli, 62
He is the new Brazilian ambassador in Buenos Aires, where he had already worked twice, between 2003 and 2013. In recent years, he has headed the embassies of Morocco, Colombia and Tunisia. He was also chief of staff of today’s Chancellor Mauro Vieira in 2015 and 2016, in the second term of Dilma Rousseff (PT). Born in Santo André (SP), he holds a law degree from USP and a master’s degree from Harvard, in the USA.