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Germany is unlikely to compete with China in South America’s resource industry.
Written by Ahmed Adel, Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s trip to Argentina, Brazil and Chile was with the aim of involving them in the Ukraine conflict and to create a regional counterweight to China’s growing influence. These are similar actions already made by the US in South America and one that we can also expect from other European powers.
Scholz’s visit is an attempt to restore influence in a region that has been empowered by China and Russia to forge an independent path that is not under the umbrella of the “Monroe Doctrine.” It is not a coincidence that the German Chancellor visited the region just days after the Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), at which member states sought to strengthen regional integration in the context of Western powers attempting to prevent Latin America from strengthening relations with Russia and China.
Behind Scholz’s visit was the fact that China has become very close to Latin America. Therefore, it is in Berlin’s interest to note this competition between the Great Powers in South America and follow the trends that are emerging in the region rather than just behave as Washington’s representative.
It cannot be overlooked that South America, especially Chile, has large lithium reserves. Scholz’s visit is a form of US and European effort to effectively make the Chilean economy work in their own interest, as was the case when the US installed Augusto Pinochet as dictator in 1973.
The West’s imperial attitude of previous centuries remains the same, but, now with China’s s thirst for resources, South American countries are finding a way out from the grasps of US hegemony. It is reminded, for example, that Chile’s main copper export partner today is China and not the US.
Both Washington and Berlin want major Latin American countries, like Chile, to ratify commercial, diplomatic, and political relations with the West so that they are not absorbed into China’s sphere of influence. This is an endeavour that will take many years to undergo because China is already entrenched in the region, something that is problematic for Germany as they need immediate solutions to the self-imposed energy crisis caused by sanctions on Russia.
Germany’s own self-destructive policies made it show an interest in a region that it never traditionally did. If the war in Ukraine was not occurring, it is more than likely that Berlin would not be in a hurry to forge new relationships for alternative energy sources. The issue is that Germany wants to impose its own liberal ideology over Latin America as a condition for trade, which means a cut in trade and relations with China and Russia.
South America is not only an important source of resources, but is a major region that refuses to cut trade and diplomatic relations with Russia. Whatever anticipation or expectation Scholz had on his trip were quickly dashed as he did not find the response he was expecting from his Latin American counterparts. The positions of the leaders of Argentina, Brazil and Chile reflects the fact that these governments know how to distinguish economic cooperation from political dependence.
Involving Latin America in the Ukraine conflict is something that will face widespread rejection. For example, although new Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva “emphatically deplored Russia’s violation of Ukraine’s territorial integrity and annexation of parts of its territory as flagrant violations of international law” in a joint statement released with Scholtz on January 30, his government’s policies towards Russia have not deviated far from his predecessor Jair Bolsonaro.
However, Lula also confirmed that Brazil would not provide ammunition to Ukraine for German-made Gepard anti-aircraft guns, as reportedly requested by Berlin, and insinuated that Ukraine was not seeking peace. Effectively, Lula is happy to pay lip service to the West but will not take any concrete action in matters related to the war in Ukraine.
In the same light, Argentina and Chile’s leaders also ended any German hope that they might lend support for Ukraine despite the fact that they were happy to condemn Russia’s military operation as an “invasion”. On his Latin America tour, Scholz wanted to demonstrate that international unity against Russia extends beyond the Western World, but only managed to secure some statements that are unlikely to damage relations with Moscow.
For his part, Lula said Brazil will work with other countries to help achieve peace in Ukraine as his country has not taken sides – something objectively true despite some damning rhetoric. In fact, likely to the annoyance of the German Chancellor, Lula said that China has an important role to play in peace talks, which he said he will discuss on a planned visit to Beijing in March.
It can be said that although Scholz’s trip can serve as a foundation for German-South American relations, his main goals – to secure support for Ukraine and to make advances in the resource industry only found limited success. Although he secured some rhetoric against Russia, he could not secure any material support for Ukraine. At the same time, although Germany has pitched its entry into the resource market, there is no guarantee that it will come to fruition or even challenge China’s dominance in the region.
Nobody gives 2 fucks about Germany in South America at all
Except all the nazis (and their offspring) that fled there after the war.
Germans are replacing Russia with South America. Nothing to do with Ukraine. This is business – resources and new markets. With Russia facing massive decline, South America is looking into bright future!
You’re wrong. There are millions of Germans in South America, and generations of their descendants, they even have their own cities/towns there, where people only speak German.
But you’re right, despite that, nobody is going to support US global wars and ambitions for world domination, neither directly or via their proxy Germany.
Germany will rise as a power.
South America is populated culturally by peace loving people. Europe has gone to war again and again, nation against nation. South American nations have managed to avoid any wars between them, aside from an occasional skirmish on a border when guerrilla forces are being pursued by the military. God has blessed the southern hemisphere. The meek shall inherit the earth.
Peace loving people don’t cut heads off of other humans on a daily basis like the videos from those countries prove on a daily basis. Peaceful people don’t leave human body parts piled up in the streets on a daily basis either. Watch the videos coming out of those areas every single day. Death is violent, dail, and common in the southern hemisphere. You better wake up.
I am pinning my hopes on UA OKW getting strategic freedom values, logiks and and advizes from from Tommy, top military expert to skyrocket OUN 2.0 fortunes into the ionosphere.
The satanic serpent organization is going to attack: Russia must decapitate the viper before it is the striking pose. The west cannot be saved.
The Bear unifies all faithful peoples of earth. The Bear must strike the pit viper now before it gets stronger. The viper intends the death of Russia: it must be stopped at all costs.
So let it be written, so let it be done.
Nobody will be happier than Scholz himself about this „failure“.
BTW, Lula‘s face says it all „Du armes Schwein“
If the South Americans have not wised up by now there is no hope for them , none at all . Keep your distance from the north Americans and the Europeans, embrace the Chinese and the Russians.
Africans and Latins should strive to have more progress though, because their countries are infested with stagnation and cartels.
No one outside europe and north america gives a damn about the ukrainian conflict while those countries try to paint this as the most important battle between good and evil in human history.
They really act like nazis who thought a world not ruled by them is not worth living in.
Well, it actually is a battle against evil. Perhaps you don’t know it if you don’t live in the west, but our system is very evil, and it’s infecting other countries, and those not infected get invaded. There is not only such an infection, but there is an infection of evil spreading inside western societies.
You wouldn’t believe it if I told you the details, it’s just so sick and perverse you can’t believe it’s actually happening.
And well, if you know what is good for you, you will be willing to fight for your life against it, wherever you are in the world, or if you are in the west, because this is the greatest threat yet to humanity. They want world domination and an everlasting global tyranny, controlled by them.
Almost all of the states of the world are corrupted, not only Europe and North America.
We in Greece don’t want the games of the US either.
Germany has lots of potential and will become more important for eliminating jewry.
The secret societies like Illuminati and the Thule Society came from Germany.
“What a pendejo, complete el stupido!” – da Silva’s thoughts about laughing Sholtz.
bruh… they speak portugese down there
I know. But el stupido is not spanish word.
Jewish puppet back to your land