The governments of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Bolivia released a joint statement on Tuesday in which Uruguay does not appear.
“Meeting on December 6, 2022, in the city of Montevideo, Uruguay, within the scope of the LXI Summit of Heads of State of MERCOSUR and Associated States, preceded, the previous day, by the LXI Ordinary Meeting of the Market Council Council, the governments of the Argentine Republic, the Federative Republic of Brazil, the Republic of Paraguay and the Plurinational State of Bolivia evaluated the current state of the regional integration process,” said the release.
As happened at the Paraguay summit, the summit ended without a statement from the blocbut the countries took theirs out, which was published on the official website of each government.
The publication of the communiqué, and the development of the Mercosur summit that took place in Montevideo, occurred in the midst of tensions due to the aspirations of the government of Uruguayan President Luis Lacalle Pou to make Mercosur more flexible and modern. Above all, regarding the possibility of entering into individual agreements with third countries.
For example, in the commitment that the Uruguayan government is making to sign a free trade agreement with China, and enter the Trans-Pacific Agreement, an intention that materialized in recent days with the trip of Foreign Minister Francisco Bustillo to New Zealand to deliver a letter of adhesion from the Uruguayan government.
