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The European Union continues to try to deploy its common foreign policy throughout the world and Latin America is an important part of that agenda. Although the bloc’s foreign relations have focused above all on Asia, to counteract Chinese influence, and in Africa due to the migratory flow, Latin America has become an important continent due to the progressive influence exerted by the Asian giant and Russia in the region.
The European Commission has recently proposed the creation of the Global Portal, a global investment project whose purpose is to tackle what is known as the Chinese Silk Road. The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, made it clear that she wants Latin America to be part of this project to provide support in education or in the fight against the climate crisis.
Although the European Union has already taken other steps in terms of aid to Latin America and its fight against the pandemic, donating more than 50 million doses of vaccines against Covid-19, it has also been criticized for not having paid more attention to the region in recent years.
Nor has the long-awaited trade agreement with the Mercosur countries, now blocked, after 20 years of negotiations, been ratified. The European Parliament rejected the approval of the pact in its current form, above all, due to the environmental policy of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and so far there is no date for its entry into force.
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