US Senator Marco Rubio asked to “prioritize” the link with Uruguay

A few days before Uruguayan Foreign Minister Francisco Bustillo traveled to the United States to meet with Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, a senator from that country wrote in a letter that it would be good for Washington to approach Uruguay.

The author of the statement is Marco Rubio, an American opposition senator, who made clear two reasons for generating the link, the newspaper El País reported. The first is that Uruguay is a reliable country, due to its record of credibility and payment of foreign debt. The second is that more attention must be paid to China's rapprochement with this and other countries.

The senator from the state of Florida, in the southeast of the country, called for the US government to develop “even closer ties” with Uruguay. “While the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) - the US's biggest geopolitical adversary - courts the Uruguayan government with a free trade agreement, Uruguay remains open to balancing its trade by making more exports to Europe and the US.” , he wrote.

The message went well in the Executive Tower, especially as Bustillo and his advisors prepare the trip to Washington for April 10, next week. “For Uruguay it is a central journey. The United States is a power and, beyond what is diplomatic, any agreement reached can be very important,” an anonymous government source told the newspaper, as there is an agreement to maintain a “low profile” between the two countries.

Currently, the United States does not have an ambassador to Uruguay. The last person to hold that position was Kenneth S. George, who finished his position in January 2021. Bustillo intends to touch on this subject during his trip since, since then, the highest American diplomatic authority in Uruguay is Jennifer Savage, who is the chargé d'affaires.

Since Bustillo was appointed as chancellor, this is his second trip to the United States. In October 2020, Michael Pompeo, a diplomat, received him in Washington, and on that trip, “the multiple possibilities of strengthening contacts at all levels and deepening commercial ties were analyzed,” the Foreign Ministry reported. This official trip is the first Uruguayan contact with the new authorities of the Biden government, since the previous ones were with Donald Trump still in charge.

This trip is also preceded by the visit to Uruguay by the American Undersecretary of State, Wendy Sherman, in early November 2021. At that time, he met with the chancellor and the president, Lacalle Pou.

“I really don't think that the United States, at least today, is considering starting deep negotiations with Uruguay; I hope I'm wrong,” Foreign Minister Bustillo said in June 2021, in front of the International Relations Committee of Deputies. At that time, I did not imagine that the possibility of a Free Trade Agreement with Uruguay would be of interest to that country.

However, Bustillo's trip came to fruition after an invitation received months ago by the United States. Despite the potential diplomatic alliances in which Washington may be interested, for Lacalle Pou the most important thing is to find commercial gains for Uruguay. He stressed that neither he, nor his government, is driven by ideological affinities and added that “if I have an obligation to defend national interests, I will do what everyone already knows: to open Uruguay to the world.”

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