Joseph Biden’s senior national security adviser to arrive in Buenos Aires to offer “modern relations” to Alberto Fernández’s government

Argentina can be confusing with its foreign policy and Brazil will not convince of its commitment to environmental protection, but Joe Biden’s government does not intend to deviate: will insist on deepening diplomatic relations with Buenos Aires and Brasilia to prevent the region from facing an institutional crisis due to the global economic crisis and the health and social effects caused by COVID-19.

“We want to show the region that we are not dividing it into countries for or against us, we want to show that we will always find constructive areas to work together”, explained to Infobae a senior White House official.

The conversation puts into context the trip that Jake Sullivan, head of the White House’s National Security Council (NSC), and Juan González, head of the organization’s Western Hemisphere, will be taking this week to Argentina and Brazil. Sullivan and González know the geopolitical agenda of Jair Bolsonaro and Alberto Fernández, and their whirlwind tour – along with other White House officials – aims to smooth relations with Washington.

When Biden appointed Jacob Jeremiah Sullivan to the strategic post, one of the presidential closest, there was agreement in power circles in Washington: the veteran Democrat had chosen one of the brightest minds and one of the most promising men. Sullivan is only 44 years old.

González, also young, was already advising Biden on Latin American issues when the current president was Barack Obama’s vice president, and during the election campaign it was already clear that he would stop at the NSC. During these campaign weeks, González spoke with Infobae and explained how Biden would relate to Latin America if he became president: “It will work with countries that are ready to work and that are ambitious. Countries that are ready will have a natural ally in Joe Biden ”, forecast.

No sooner said than done. González was already in Buenos Aires in April, on a tour that included other countries in the region, and during which he had a virtual lunch with the president, isolated while recovering from COVID-19.

Already in June, the Colombian-American received Sergio Massa, president of the Chamber of Deputies, in Washington. That four months later, he returned to Buenos Aires, but this time accompanied by his direct boss, confirms that the plan of seduction of Argentina remains firm, despite the reluctance and the strange zigzags of foreign policy that the government of Frente de Todos displays frequently. .

On the diplomatic and technical level, the tour is presented as a visit “to the leaders of the main allied countries of America, not belonging to NATO”.

Washington considers Brasilia and Buenos Aires “two of the most important economies not only regionally, but also globally”. He sees the two capitals in the context of the G-20 and hopes that the talks will not be limited to bilateral, but rather regional and global.

“We want to generate a medium and long term collaboration with the two countries which goes beyond the joint efforts to defeat the pandemic” of COVID-19added the senior White House official who works alongside Biden.

This is an important and clear offer because it hasn’t been around for a long time, designed, too and of course, to contain China’s influence in the region. “We speak with countries of the right and of the left, no matter who is in power”, said the influential member of the Democratic administration.

Fernández may be erratic with his policies towards the regimes of Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba or he may propose replacing the OAS with CELAC, but he knows that doing his homework on the issue of climate change wins many points in the White House. This is not exactly the case with Bolsonaro, whom his country’s opposition and global environmental organizations accuse of endangering the Amazon.

Sullivan and González will visit Olivos and the Planalto Palace to see the presidents, But in the hours that pass in Brazil there will be nothing less than a gesture: beyond talking about climate change with Bolsonaro, the Americans have summoned the governors who make up the Interstate Consortium of the Amazon.

Hand in hand, and without the presence of the federal government, Biden’s envoys will discuss with the governors “Amazon deforestation and international funding mechanisms for biomass protection projects.”

“We want our connection to go beyond the federal government on the Amazon issue,” Washington sources told Infobae. Military and cybernetic cooperation will be another topic to be discussed, with particular interest in 5G and what Brasilia is doing with pressure from Beijing for Huawei to provide this network. This is why the NSC’s director of technology and national security, Tarun Chhabra, the director of cybernetics, Amit Mital, and the director of the Western Hemisphere office of the State Department, Ricardo Zúñiga, also do part of the tour.

Unlike Brazil, Argentina “has taken very concrete steps on the issue of climate change,” said the official who works at the White House. The subject will be discussed, but Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua will also be important issues, as well as the fight against the pandemic (“which is of great interest to the Argentine government”) and “shared economic growth”. Translation? The renegotiation of the debt with the IMF and the need for Washington’s support on this path.

What does Biden want from Fernández? That the two countries maintain “modern relations, always recognizing that it is the Argentines who will determine their future”. And in this new and elastic concept, that of “modern relations”, there is the opportunity for Argentina to face a White House which does not ask it to choose between the United States and China, but to choose and to decide on other aspects where there is much in common and to be done.

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