Foreign policy of Argentina

Several factors such us the geographical locations, culture, history and the economy, shape the foreign policy of a country. Herein, the foreign policy of Argentina has been discussed taking into consideration the changes in the foreign policy brought about by the changes in regimes of the country. However, priority has been given to the current foreign policy of Argentina under president Mauricio Macri. (2015-present) Like any other nation, the foreign policy of Argentina contains a set of principles and policies that have been adopted and followed in nurturing the country’s international relations. The goals of national interest to be secured and the means of achieving these goals is a major feature of the foreign policy. For a very long time, Argentina has been isolated from the global financial markets due to the poor foreign policy.

The country is, however, is in the process of ending its isolation. The sanctions put upon it prevented Argentina from borrowing on international markets. If the deal with holdout creditors is approved by the Argentine Congress, these injunctions will be lifted, and the Buenos Aires will open its doors for foreign investors. This will be the most rapid transformation that has been implemented by President Mauricio Macri since taking office in December. Macri is determined to adopt more conciliatory foreign policy rather than the confrontational policy. Several changes are needed to change the bad image of Argentina in order to regain the trust of other countries. The appointment of Susana Malcorra as the foreign minister is an indication of the president’s resolve to take back Argentina to multilateral diplomacy.

(Merke 2016) The government of Macri will try to strengthen Argentina’s relations with the EU and US before that of Asian despite the global shifts in political and economic power from the West to the East. Bilateral dialogue between Argentina and the US have improved in both tone and content. Earlier, Argentina was he major hindrance in Mercosur to the trade agreement with the EU, which was set to be the bloc’s first potential trading partner. Macri is trying to reignite the stalled talks on the trade agreement with EU. For the Argentina- UK relationship, Macri has a strong desire to adopt a less confrontational approach to solving the Malvinas/Falkland Islands dispute. The government of Argentina is set to reopen relations with London and restart dialogue on a common positive agenda.

This will enable the two countries to retain their respective positions regarding the two islands while moving forward and cooperating on other issues. Trade disputes, however, have subdued the relations between Argentina and Brazil. These disputes, among others, are those involving the reduction of automatic import licenses by both sides and the misunderstandings over diplomatic issues such as the UN Security Council reforms. Macri has signalled his desire to retain Argentina’s main trade partner by his meeting with President Rousseff in December 2015. Peace, democracy and free trade has been a core shared commitment by the two countries and thus the need to push for a common agenda for the Mercosur is necessary. Macri seems prepared to abandon the reigning code of silence among Latin American states by openly condemning those reformist governments that have eroded independence of the press and other human rights organisation.