Argentine Envoy Ambassador Gustavo Martinez Pandiani, who paid a recent visit to Kingstown, told the St. Vincent Times that CELAC’s relationships with all countries are good. However, they are not on the same agenda.
Pandiani said CELAC includes all countries from Mexico to the south, from Chile to the Caribbean. It’s only Latin American and Caribbean States. No United States; no Canada; no Europe.
In an interview with the St. Vincent Times last Thursday, Ambassador Pandiani gave an insight into the tense relations with Washington.
“The idea is at least to get those who are neighbors together.” We understand that Latin America and the Caribbean are our own neighborhoods. Then we have our external, what we call extra-regional partners, which are the US, Europe, China, Russia, and all other parts of the world”.
“We don’t want to have a bad relationship with anyone, but of course we want to protect our own resources.” You know, our region is very rich in terms of natural resources, mineral resources, lithium, agriculture, water, everything, and sometimes we feel other parts of the world are looking at our resources like they are theirs.
“So the idea is not to have bad relationships with the US or with anybody in particular, but of course if we have to defend our own agenda, our own interests, we are going to do so very, very strongly because that is what our people want.”
This is what CELAC means when it says our resources are ours, and we are going to protect them because they are part of our future. Ambassador Pandiani said,
During the interview, Ambassador Pandiani went on to speak about the EU-CELAC relations, which he described as “positive and constructive,” a far different description than that of the US-CCELAC relationship.
“We have historical background that is there, but we need to identify first what are the common issues that concern both regions. This is what we call a bi-regional dialogue. So first, we need to get very clear among ourselves what we want to get from the upcoming EU-CELAC meeting this summer.
“The leadership for the discussion on the side of the Europeans is going to be under the leadership of Spain, and in our case, under the leadership of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.” “So it’s very important what role Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves is going to have with his team.”
Ambassador Pandiani said there is what you call in CELAC “unity in diversity.”
“We have a lot of countries—33 countries—but with a lot of diversity, different political orientations, and different kinds of ideological conceptions, so it’s not an easy job. However, I’m sure that a leader with such experience as Ralph Gonsalves is going to be not only able but also successful in the task of putting us together first to go and talk to the Europeans”.
