Argentina will officially rejoin the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) to “promote its institutional revitalization and build an increasingly integrated region,” Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero said on Thursday.
Cafiero described the return as crucial for Argentina, for it would consolidate an increasingly integrated region “with greater intra-regional trade and higher levels of cooperation for development.”
Argentine President Alberto Fernandez announced on March 21 the decision to rejoin the regional bloc during a meeting in Buenos Aires with members of the Puebla Group and the Latin American Council for Justice and Democracy.
At the end of the meeting, the president said: “in Latin America we are all in the same boat… That is why we must revitalize UNASUR as soon as possible.”
Argentina left the bloc in 2019. After Uruguay’s withdrawal from the organization in 2020, only Guyana, Suriname, Bolivia and Venezuela remain in union.