Natasha Niebieskikwiat
01/28/2021 19:01
Clarín.com
Politics
Updated 01/28/2021 7:01 PM
After being confirmed by the Senate,
Antony Blinken
assumed this Wednesday as Secretary of State of the administration of Joseph Biden.
When he appeared before his new work team, he was sincere that a hard road awaited them to see how they will get foreign policy back on track after four years of the isolationist and nationalist doctrine of Donald Trump.
But Blinken - and to begin with Biden himself - are given proof that for now they will
continue with several of the Republican's central policies.
These are matters that go in the opposite direction to the expectations of the Alberto Fernández government.
Especially because they expected
a different approach to the Nicolás Maduro regime.
Another in Trump's political and trade war with China, and a different approach to the traditional trade protectionism that strongly affects the entry of Argentine products to the US market.
The strategy towards Latin America does not appear for now as a priority for Biden in these hours where other events are more critical in the eyes of Washington: economy and pandemic.
Arguably, so far, the only thread linking the Fernández and Biden universes is the commitment to multilateralism and the fight against climate change.
The rest are differences.
The matter deserves a score from the same confirmation hearing that Blinken had to face before the Senate last week - they confirmed it this Tuesday by 78 votes in favor and 22 against -, and in which, as usual, it sought to seduce the opposition republican.
In that train, the regional aspect and that represents a change of perspective for what is expected here is the Venezuela factor
.
The Biden administration will continue with strong pressure on the Nicolás Maduro regime;
the sanctions against the Chavista leaders will be maintained;
Juan Guaidó will continue to be recognized as "interim president."
For Biden and Blinken Maduro is a "brutal dictator."
The new White House spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, said Washington wants a "peaceful democratic transition" in Venezuela and the holding of "free and fair elections." A difficult scenario for an Alberto F. who slides wanting to be a mediator with Caracas And the pressure that the Cuban exile began to exert calling for harshness from Biden against Havana also called attention.
Blinken, has several topics high on its agenda.
One, if not the first, is the relationship with China on which he has said that
Trump “was right to take a tougher approach towards”
that country.
“I strongly disagree with the way he did it in various areas, but the basic principle was correct.
And I think that is really useful for our foreign policy, "he said at the Senate hearing.
The answer from the Chinese came from Xi Jinping himself.
"Creating clans or starting a new Cold War, rejecting, threatening or intimidating others ... will only lead the world to division," the Chinese president said in his speech to the Davos Forum.
The continuity of the rivalry between Chinese and Americans is a situation of
deep discomfort for
Fernández's
Argentina
, which further strengthened ties with China during the pandemic.
By the way, he has pending a state visit to Xi in Beijing, for May of this year, while the ambassador to the United States, Jorge Argüello,
negotiates left and right a bilateral with Biden in the White House.
Meanwhile, the Chinese await decisions that the government has not yet materialized - Argentina's adherence to the Silk Road - the construction of a nuclear power plant, and infrastructure works that will continue to cause jealousy in the United States.
Given the weight of his country,
Biden is the one who should support Argentina's negotiation with the IMF.
In this train, the new executive order known as
Buy American,
which promotes the Purchase of American Products, and prioritizes national companies and products for contracts with the federal government, has also just been known.
This is roughly a surprise decision that
follows Donald Trump's "American First."
Against this background, and with the access of Argentine biodiesel slowing down in the US market - and the loss of US $ 1,200 million in profits per year there - Argentina will not necessarily find a Department of Commerce more accessible to the Democrats than the one it had with Trump.
Nothing better than an old Washington maxim to describe that Fernández's relationship with Democratic power seems to depend more on what Argentina does than on what the United States does.
The President seems to know.
Hence his strong anger with Foreign Minister Felipe Solá for a controversial tweet in which, congratulating Biden on his inauguration on January 20, he marked the court saying that he hoped "also not to bet on the disunity of our nations as in the previous stage "