Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration.
“It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today.
“One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,” he said.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Paraguay, a landlocked country of 6.1 million people, punches above its weight geopolitically as one of the last remaining countries that maintains diplomatic ties with Taiwan.
China has steadily whittled down Taipei’s allies in Latin America amid rising tensions with the US.
Honduras, Panama, El Salvador and the Dominican Republic broke ties with Taiwan and switched to Beijing in recent years.
Trump’s US Department of State stands to have some of the deepest policy experience in Latin America of any recent US administration.
He tapped Marco Rubio as his secretary of state, while Mauricio Claver-Carone would return as one of the president’s top advisers on Latin America.
Trump also picked Christopher Landau, a former US ambassador to Mexico, as deputy secretary of state.
US Congressman Mike Waltz is set to become a national security adviser and has called for the US to counter China’s inroads in the region.
Rubio, who visited Pena last year in Asuncion, praised Paraguay during his confirmation hearing as an example for the US to encourage in the region.
“I also think it’s important to recognize allies in the region, like Paraguay, that have not flipped,” to China, Rubio said on Wednesday last week.
That is indeed music to Pena’s ears as he’s crisscrossing the world in search of foreign investment for Paraguay, making more than three dozen trips abroad since taking office a year and a half ago.
Paraguay has remained one of the region’s more stable nations politically and economically in recent years despite volatility in Argentina and Brazil next door.
Pena pitched his country as a destination for investments by US technology companies. He also wants the Trump administration to grant Paraguayan beef an import quota with preferential tariff treatment.
In the interview, Pena said he does not have a bilateral meeting planned with Rubio, who is still awaiting confirmation by the US Senate, but Pena attended a gala dinner on Saturday night hosted by the incoming top diplomat.
Pena is also campaigning for Paraguayan Minister of Foreign Affairs Ruben Ramirez to lead the Washington-based Organization of American States.
Pena’s neighbor, Argentine President Javier Milei, would also attend the inauguration, and is pushing for their trade bloc, Mercosur, to let Argentina independently negotiate a trade deal with the US.
Pena pushed back against a bilateral US-Argentina trade agreement, as Mercosur requires all countries in the bloc to negotiate together.
However, he conceded that Mercosur, which Milei labeled a protectionist “prison” last year, needs reforms.
“We need to revitalize the bloc. I’m not happy with the current situation. I think nobody’s happy,” Pena said, without detailing reforms he supports.
“Mercosur countries are better off negotiating as a bloc than individually. Either you maintain the bloc and you negotiate as a bloc or you dissolve the bloc and negotiate bilaterally,” he added.
Pena’s visit to Washington to attend Trump’s inauguration ceremony caps a tumultuous four years for the bilateral relationship under US President Joe Biden.
He added that during his visit he would not address US sanctions brought against his political ally, former Paraguayan president and Colorado Party chairman Horacio Cartes, who faces allegations of corruption and ties to Hezbollah.
Cartes, one of Paraguay’s wealthiest businessmen and whose patronage was key to Pena’s landslide victory, has denied the accusations.
Pena criticized the sanctions as motivated by false information, but said it was a personal matter for Cartes.
Auschwitz survivor Eva Schloss, the stepsister of teenage diarist Anne Frank and a tireless educator about the horrors of the Holocaust, has died. She was 96. The Anne Frank Trust UK, of which Schloss was honorary president, said she died on Saturday in London, where she lived. Britain’s King Charles III said he was “privileged and proud” to have known Schloss, who cofounded the charitable trust to help young people challenge prejudice. “The horrors that she endured as a young woman are impossible to comprehend and yet she devoted the rest of her life to overcoming hatred and prejudice, promoting kindness, courage, understanding
US President Donald Trump on Friday said Washington was “locked and loaded” to respond if Iran killed protesters, prompting Tehran to warn that intervention would destabilize the region. Protesters and security forces on Thursday clashed in several Iranian cities, with six people reported killed, the first deaths since the unrest escalated. Shopkeepers in Tehran on Sunday last week went on strike over high prices and economic stagnation, actions that have since spread into a protest movement that has swept into other parts of the country. If Iran “violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to
‘DISRESPECTFUL’: Katie Miller, the wife of Trump’s most influential adviser, drew ire by posting an image of Greenland in the colors of the US flag, captioning it ‘SOON’ US President Donald Trump on Sunday doubled down on his claim that Greenland should become part of the US, despite calls by the Danish prime minister to stop “threatening” the territory. Washington’s military intervention in Venezuela has reignited fears for Greenland, which Trump has repeatedly said he wants to annex, given its strategic location in the arctic. While aboard Air Force One en route to Washington, Trump reiterated the goal. “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it,” he said in response to a reporter’s question. “We’ll worry about Greenland in
PERILOUS JOURNEY: Over just a matter of days last month, about 1,600 Afghans who were at risk of perishing due to the cold weather were rescued in the mountains Habibullah set off from his home in western Afghanistan determined to find work in Iran, only for the 15-year-old to freeze to death while walking across the mountainous frontier. “He was forced to go, to bring food for the family,” his mother, Mah Jan, said at her mud home in Ghunjan village. “We have no food to eat, we have no clothes to wear. The house in which I live has no electricity, no water. I have no proper window, nothing to burn for heating,” she added, clutching a photograph of her son. Habibullah was one of at least 18 migrants who died
RSS