Alberto Fernández to meet Joe Biden’s security adviser | Jake Sullivan’s visit to Argentina

From Washington, DC

US National Security Advisor Jake sullivan, one of Joe Biden’s top government officials, come to Argentina after his visit to Brazil and will meet the president Alberto Fernandez. The visit to Buenos Aires is the third by a person in the Democratic administration to date in 2021. The trip of Sullivan, Biden’s adviser to the region, was announced this week by the White House. “He will meet with the leaders of the main allies in the Americas outside of NATO,” said Emily Horne, spokesperson for the National Security Council.

In Argentina, according to the US government, the delegation “will talk about strengthening strategic ties on regional and bilateral priorities”; Among other things, Biden’s management included recovery from the pandemic, the regional climate summit, shared economic growth, and security in the Western Hemisphere and globally.

This is the third trip by a Biden administration official to Buenos Aires this year. The first, last March, was Craig Faller, head of the country’s Southern Command. A few weeks later, Juan González, the US government’s principal adviser on Latin America, traveled, who also accompanies Sullivan on this visit.

Last April, González avoided going to Brazil, but this time the delegation put the neighboring country as their first destination. There Sullivan met the President Jair Bolsonaro, who during the 2020 US election campaign openly supported Republican Donald Trump. Besides Sullivan and González, the entourage includes someone from the State Department, but mostly technology advisers. Indeed, the main interest of the trip to Brazil relates to the future 5G network of the South American giant.

“The delegation will meet with leaders to discuss opportunities to strengthen the strategic partnership between the United States and Brazil, improve regional stability, advance climate goals, collaborate on digital infrastructure and help pave the way for the resumption of the COVID-19 pandemic. », Had confined itself to saying the White House.

This infrastructure collaboration is essentially a discussion of who will get the 5G network after the next auction that Brazil has to hold before the end of the year. Already under the Trump administration, the United States began to push for the neighboring country to reject offers from Chinese company Huawei.

However, the participation of the Chinese company in the auction associated with another company is not yet excluded. For the United States, if Huawei’s service is present in Brazil, this could affect its role as a strategic ally outside of NATO.

China’s relationship with South America is one of the issues the US administration is monitoring closely, especially amid the COVID-19 pandemic, in which the region has purchased millions of vaccines. to the pharmaceutical companies of the Asian giant.

In contrast, the White House seeks to show that the United States government is distributing the doses. On Thursday, Biden announced that so far, the country has already donated more than 110 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine to 65 countries. “This exceeds the donations of the 24 countries which donated a vaccine to other countries, including China and Russia,” the president said. “These donations from the United States are free. We don’t sell them. There are no demands, there are no conditions, there is no coercion attached, ”he said. In Brazil, the North American country has already sent 3 million doses. To Argentina, 3.5 million.

It is expected that, during the visit to Buenos Aires, the delegation will talk about the pandemic and vaccines, but above all it will have a regional agenda. On the Argentine side, the position is more bilateral and includes a theme already common in discussions with American officials: the negotiation with the International Monetary Fund, in which the support of the United States is still crucial.

The national government considers this visit “to be of a very high standard”, and that this “reflects that there is a good climate and cordial and mature relations with the United States”. In addition, they point out that Sullivan’s visit belies the speculations of opposition sectors who cry out that from Washington “they are concerned” by the departure of Argentina from the Lima group, by abstaining from the OAS or by the positions of the government on the situation in Cuba. . “With this visit from a frontline manager, it is obvious that they are not angry or if they are, they are hiding it very well», They express.

Regarding the agenda and expectations of the meeting, they indicate that they hope to continue to move forward on the issue of vaccines. “This government has no ideological prejudices. We are receiving from the United States, China, Russia and England ”, they underline. They also add that it is expected that a new donation can be obtained and that the manufacture of North American vaccines can begin in Argentina. Regarding a possible visit of Alberto Fernández to Biden, they noted that “we are not going to offer it or ask for it, but we are predisposed. The truth is, the Biden government has yet to receive a president on the pandemic issue.