Between the United States and China, Argentina gravitates a foreign policy of difficult balance

Alberto Fernández’s foreign policy for 2021 faces the challenge of showing that he has a government plan, and that he also appears to be his. Consulted diplomats, foreign analysts and international media try to translate Argentina. Come to the land in the hands of a two-headed power between Cristina Kirchner first and Fernández, later, in the midst of unbridled social and economic deterioration.

The president must decide whether or not to support his Foreign Minister Felipe Solá, the target of criticism at Casa Rosada. And must revolve around inherited and acquired commitments to China as Ake realizes his priority desire to work with Joseph Biden. The Democrat takes office on January 20.

Anyone who talks about an Argentina between the United States and China should take this into account in negotiations with the IMF, where Washington’s support is needed.

These did not close in 2020 as expected and have passed for the new year. In the government, they assure that there are alternatives of financing, with international organizations for this year. The promotion of investments and exports is irregular.

The love of China last year is not free, like no one in geopolitics. He wants to move forward this year with the construction of a nuclear power station in Argentina. He wants Fernández to sign membership in his “Silk Road” (which stipulates money for public works), he wants to gain the 5G space, among others. All come into conflict with the interests of States

With regard to the pandemic, the most urgent task of the government in this year which begins is go out into the world to negotiate the purchase of vaccines. The Fernandezs first settled on the Russian Sputnik. And then they started a confused fight with Pfize. There may be relief if the first doses of the millions bought from Oxford Astrazeneca arrive in March. Negotiations with the Chinese are also open. Still, Argentina is seen as something strange. A long and hard quarantine, and today, among the first places of the dead and the infected.

Alberto Fernández has a man with his kidney, Ambassador to Washington Jorge Argüello, working to achieve a bilateral deal with Biden for the first months of the year that has started. This was confirmed by the diplomat himself during an interview with the Rotary Club chaired by journalist Clara Mariño. Argüello also assured that he had not received pressure from Trump for his position against the conviction of Chavismo and considers that he will not receive pressure from Biden either.

The government is showing signs hopes the Democrat has a relationship of greater empathy with Argentina than Donald Trump, and a different approach to Latin America, including the question of Venezuela. Then they’re working on a trip to the U.S. capital for Alberto Fernández to see only Biden, and another for the United States between April and May if the Summit of the Americas takes place. This is on hold due to the coronavirus outbreak. Of Washington, he says the future of the two depends more on what Argentina does than what the United States does. In short, as has always happened.

Fernández is also betting in 2021 that Pope Francis will play with Biden, especially in the fight against global warming, a space in which the three will commune. The relationship with Jorge Bergoglio is reportedly going through a difficult time now due to the recent approval of the law legalizing abortion.

In the West, there are powerful leaders, but few are charismatic. Most are in trouble because the pandemic has shown the weaknesses of the developed world. The president can continue to play 2021 to be a sane man in front of the “bad man” of this district, which for Europe for example is Jair Bolsonaro. In these months of Argentina’s Mercosur presidency, he must move forward on at least one deal and get closer to Brazil once, after the 2020 setbacks with Bolsonaro. Ambassador Daniel Scioli is working on it. It is only then that the possibility of a new phase of the free trade agreement between Mercosur and the European Union should materialize, which calls into question the environmental standards of this region.

With shocking certainty, the government indicates that foreign policy is moving into a third position. But 2021 is accompanied by a country anchored in its positions on China, Russia and Venezuela. No sign of wanting new adventures, in Africa, the Arab world, or the Asian region beyond China, although the Chancellor of Japan will arrive in the country in January. Argentina from the 2018 G20 summit is just a memory.