European Union officials used a major security conference in Brazil on Tuesday to present the bloc as a stable and predictable partner, citing growing instability tied to the strategic rivalry between the United States and China.
Speaking at the Forte de Copacabana International Security Conference, Brian Glynn, the European External Action Service’s managing director for the Americas, said the EU was not seeking to distance itself from either power.
“The export-led, fossil fuel-driven economy is the past,” said Glynn, referencing China’s growing trade presence in Latin America. “What we share with Latin America is an agenda for a green, digital and just transition.”
Fire and smoke rise from where a Russian missile struck a residential area in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Saturday. The EU has cited closer ties between the Kremlin and China as a reason for bolstering its ties with the Global South. Photo: AP
Of the “just” component, the senior EU envoy explained: “We’re not here to extract resources. We’re here to build, together, a development agenda for this new economy – and to secure our own transition.”
Over the past year, Brussels has been accelerating its outreach to Latin America and the Caribbean, bearing new pledges of financing and political cooperation aimed at positioning the EU as a long-term, values-based partner.
