At last week’s EuroLat conference in Buenos Aires of European and Ibero-American parliamentarians, the European contingent failed to gain majority Ibero-American support for a final communiqué that condemned “the Russian Federation’s illegal, unprovoked and unjustified military aggression [against] and invasion of Ukraine.” Reflecting the revolt taking place among many developing-sector nations, several of the Ibero-American lawmakers said that the European formulation was “very biased,” and instead presented their own communiqué.
As reported by Sputnik Mundo (Spanish-language site), Brazilian Deputy Arnildo Chinaglia, said the Ibero-American statement presented “other reflections … first, this isn’t the first war that is unfortunately taking place on the planet; second, we can’t ignore the fact that the defense of the international legal order can’t just be for this case, because there’s the invasion of Syria, of Iraq, and the attacks systematically made against Palestinian territories. We can’t choose the war,” he said. “We have to discuss all wars. There are large countries that illegally invaded, such as the U.S. invasion of Iraq without United Nations approval.” It would be a mistake to discuss this issue “without considering NATO or the United States,” he declared.
Uruguayan MP Daniel Caggiani explained that what prevented a final consensus statement is the fact that Europe “has a very biased view supported by that of NATO and the U.S. It would be good if Europe had a more independent view on these subjects.” Ibero-Americans, he continued, opt for “dialogue and prioritize LAC (Latin America/Caribbean) and Europe as zones of peace.” He also criticized Europe’s defense of sending weapons to Ukraine rather than “food or shelter.”
