Diplomatic meeting: "We wholeheartedly want the best for Argentina," Jair Bolsonaro told Daniel Scioli

Natasha Niebieskikwiat

08/19/2020 - 13:22

• Clarín.com
• Politics

A chess game made with artisan pieces from Argentina this Wednesday became the most relaxed moment between Jair Bolsonaro and Daniel Scioli. The president of Brazil received with a wide smile the gift of the former Argentine vice president, whom he received in his work offices in Planalto.

Scioli, who arrived in Brasilia more than a week ago, presented his credentials as an ambassador for Alberto Fernández's administration. This meeting with Bolsonaro occurs without Fernández and the Brazilian ever having a conversation due to the bad relationship they have.

However, sources who accompanied Scioli to the meeting assured that the Brazilian stated twice: "We want, from the heart, the best for Argentina." And that coincided with the message that the two governments must "work together", which Scioli himself brought to Bolsonaro.

President Jair Bolsonaro received the credentials of Daniel Scioli as the new ambassador to Brazil

Scioli had an agenda with Bolsonaro on Wednesday, along with the new German and Armenian ambassadors in Brazil. However, she had her meeting alone with the Brazilian president. The photo still draws deep attention because they are both without a chinstrap , or protective mask of some kind. Bolsonaro, who has shown indifference to the advance of Covid 19, was one of those infected by the new virus, but according to his latest analysis, he negative.

In the scene they both talk about the educational functions that chess has, and that it has values ​​applicable to life, politics, and strategic aspects to face pressure. "It was a great meeting" Scioli was heard saying that this Friday he will hold his first working meeting with Foreign Minister Ernesto Araujo , whom he had already seen during the trip he made to Brasilia with Minister Felipe Solá, last February.

Sources from the Scioli team, who resigned from his seat as national deputy to take over as political ambassador of the current administration, told Clarín that the meeting"It lasted for almost an hour, and the priority issues on the bilateral agenda were also addressed, focusing on trade between the two countries and the strategic role that the relationship between Argentina and Brazil has for Mercosur." 

The Bolsonaro-Scioli meeting was also attended by Araujo, the Secretary for Strategic Affairs of the Presidency, Flavio Viana Rocha, and the meeting by the Head of Chancellery of the Argentine Embassy, ​​Pablo De Ángelis.

In addition to the lack of political harmony among the presidents, there are commercial issues to attend to. Brazil is no longer Argentina's first trading partner , since in recent months it has been displaced by China. On the other hand, as highlighted by a widely displayed article on Monday in the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper, Brazil and its businessmen complained to Argentina about the long delays in the delivery of non-automatic licenses for imports arriving from Brazil to this country. In the Chamber of Importers of the Argentine Republic they confirmed the information, but the Government says that "there is not a problem" with this issue.

Scioli has let it transpire in the interviews he had with the Brazilian press these days, in his new life in Brasilia, that he believes that relations are going to "improve" and that it is necessary to sit down and negotiate the problems. This Thursday he will hold his first "virtual trade mission", together with the governor of Buenos Aires, Axel Kicillof, and the fishing sector. And on Friday he has lunch with Araujo.

PDL