Latin America Refuses to Side With EU on Ukraine to Show Sovereignty - Expert
17:10 GMT 19.07.2023 (Updated: 17:19 GMT 19.07.2023)
© AP Photo / Petros Karadjias
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MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Latin American countries’ refusal to adopt the European position on the Ukraine conflict at the third summit of the EU and the CELAC is motivated by their historically grounded antipathy toward the US, which is viewed as an agenda setter for the EU and NATO, Francois Asselineau, a French geopolitical analyst, told Sputnik.
The third EU-CELAC Summit took place in Brussels from July 17-18. The EU failed to convince CELAC member states to directly condemn Russia's special military operation in the final declaration, but the document still expressed "deep concern on the ongoing war against Ukraine."
"The only common position of all Latin American countries in CELAC is their cordial detestation of the Northern ‘Yankees’ that have considered Latin America as their colony for 200 years. The dominance of the USA in NATO has certainly played a role too in the Latin Americans’ refusal at the summit to adopt the European version of the Ukrainian conflict. For most of the CELAC countries, the European Union and NATO are only the ‘sock-puppets’ of the US," Asselineau said, adding that, "All Latin American countries are fiercely proud of their sovereignty, the exact opposite of the European Union's will to dismantle its member nations."
The expert went on to criticize European Council President Charles Michel for calling the summit declaration "ambitious" despite it not featuring a condemnation of Russia as the EU wanted.
"Another failure is the absence of any progress on the free trade agreement called MERCOSUR between the EU and four main countries: Brazil, Chile, Argentina and Mexico. The agreement was concluded in 2019 but never ratified, because the Europeans want to add environmental demands that the Latin Americans refuse," Asselineau continued, dismissing European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's desire to settle the issue by the end of the year as "wishful thinking."
The CELAC is an intergovernmental bloc founded in 2010 to boost integration among Latin American and Caribbean countries and reduce the United States' influence on the region. The organization currently consists of 33 member states.
