Three milestones marking an “anti-Western” turn in the government’s foreign policy

In a week to forget in Argentine foreign policy, the national government has unveiled three events that mark what appears to be an anti-Western turning point in its international behavior.

The Argentine Ambassador to China, Sabino Vaca Narvaja, made statements in which delighted with Xi Jinping’s leadership and openly promoted adhere to the implementation of Huawei’s 5G network, a point that generates a high level of conflict with the United States. The Argentinian representative’s statements come at a time when China and the United States have a growing rivalry for global hegemony and in the context of deepening strategic competition.

The pro-Chinese fascination of the Argentine representative prompted a foreign correspondent in Buenos Aires to question whether the official was acting as Argentina’s ambassador to China or as China’s ambassador to Argentina. Another recalled the ordeal in which the legendary American Secretary of State George shultz (1982-1989) introduced the ambassadors he appointed. Before leaving for their destinations, he summoned them to his office at the State Department and in front of a gigantic map of the world. I asked them which country they were going to serve. Almost invariably, designated heads of mission mapped their destination countries to be corrected by Shultz who reminded them that they should never forget that they would go and serve the United States.

But the outright seduction of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) agenda is not limited exclusively to our ambassador in Beijing. Recently, the Secretary for International Cooperation of the Ministry of Defense was excited about the possibility for the Argentine armed forces to conduct joint exercises with their Chinese counterparts, an extreme which inevitably arouses the concern of the American authorities.

Another forceful protest over the anti-Western turn of the national government took place this week following the inexplicable decision of withdraw from the International Court of Justice in The Hague Argentina’s demand for persistent and massive human rights violations in Venezuela in 2018 under the Macri administration.

Once again, Argentina’s foreign ministry has opted for a path that places those responsible in the exercise of a sort of advocate role for the dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro, a despotic government that has subjugated the population of which it was a former government for many years. example of democracy in the Americas. But the attitude of the national government towards Venezuelan tyranny is also not an exceptional fact. On the contrary, the diplomacy of this fourth Kirchner administration has given repeated proofs of its adherence to the so-called “Forum of Sao Paulo” and to the “Puebla Group” by direct or indirect endorsements to the interminable Cuban dictatorship of Castro or to matrimonial autocracy. Nicaraguan by Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo.

By adopting this attitude, Argentina seems to be abandoning Venezuela’s demand for freedom and respect for human rights, a position that distances us from the democratic countries of the Americas which maintain the unshakeable demand for the end of the Chavist dictatorship and an institutional outlet for the country.

Finally, the national government decided not to condemn the terrorism of the Islamic movement Hamas that of the Gaza Strip carried out a violent terrorist attack against the State of Israel between 1 and 10 May. But the national government seems immune to the evidence. More than four thousand missiles were launched against the territory of a sovereign state causing deaths and dozens of injuries and even casualties of its own population. However, instead of condemning terrorism, the Argentine government has chosen to question the “disproportion” in the exercise of defense of the Israeli armed forces.

The President of the Nation is said to have asked his chancellor to vote in favor of the creation of a commission at the United Nations to investigate the alleged human rights violations committed by Israel in the face of the multiple terrorist attacks perpetrated by Hamas from the Gaza Strip .

Clearly anti-Israel vote naturally raised the worst suspicions, especially for the permanent memory of the signing of the memorandum of understanding that Argentina signed with the Islamic Republic of Iran in January 2013 when the current vice-president and political leader of Kirchner was at the head of the executive branch .

Meanwhile, on assuming the presidency, the current head of government declared that he would seek mature and pragmatic relations with the main powers and declared a so-called “Latin American” policy. But little remains of this promise. As in many other respects, his words seem to have faded. And the reality is that His foreign policy led him in practice to reissue the anti-Western tendencies that characterized the period that ended in 2015.

It is at least inexplicable to find the rationality of foreign policy measures so blatantly counterproductive to national interests. Perhaps it is all the more unintelligible that the events occur when the Argentine government seeks the approval of the United States and the main European countries to negotiate with the IMF and the Paris Club while making representations to the North American authorities -e cooperative programs in the supply and donation of vaccines.

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