Biden’s challenge to rally Americas around a common vision

Los Angeles (AFP) – President Joe Biden tried to present a unified vision of the Western Hemisphere on Thursday even as the Summit of the Americas was plagued by divisions and absences that make it difficult to bring North and South America together around shared goals on immigration, the economy and climate.

Differences in wealth, governance, and national interests mean that it will be difficult for Biden to replicate the partnerships he has built in Asia and Europe. That created limited expectations at a summit hosted by the United States for the first time since 1994.

With diplomatic efforts strained by summit boycotts and legislative proposals stranded in a polarized Congress, Biden has focused on trying to persuade businesses and the private sector to support his efforts. His administration hopes that financial ties will help bridge regional differences while promoting economic growth and greater equality.

“My challenge to all of you is if you step up and play a greater role in driving inclusive, sustainable and equitable growth in the 21st century, a lot will happen,” Biden said in a letter to CEOs. “None of us will be able to fulfill our ambition for the region alone.”

Before Biden took to the stage, the background was an animation showing bits of color flying together to accurately form a map of North and South America. But in reality, the process was almost out of sync, particularly with the perceived boycott of the summit by the president of Mexico and uncertainty over whether the right incentives were in place for Latin Americans to get closer to the United States.

“It has always been difficult to find consensus in Latin America,” said Ryan Berg, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank. “This is a very diverse area, and it is clearly difficult for them to speak with one voice.”

On a day full of diplomacy, the US President met with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeauwas to hold talks with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro And addressing the wider group of attendees. Vice President Kamala Harris met with Caribbean leaders to talk about clean energy, and First Lady Jill Biden was hosting a brunch to build relationships with her husbands.

The day was scheduled to end with a dinner at Getty Villa, an art museum overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

There may be tension when Biden first meets Bolsonaro, an ally of former President Donald Trump. Bolsonaro is running for a second term and casts doubt on the credibility of his country’s elections, which has alarmed officials in Washington.

When Bolsonaro accepted an invitation to the summit, he asked Biden not to confront him Because of his electoral attacks, according to three ministers of the Brazilian leader’s government who requested anonymity to discuss the issue.

Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, dismissed the idea that Biden had agreed to any terms of meeting Bolsonaro.

“There are no off-limits topics in any duo that the president does, including with President Bolsonaro,” Sullivan told reporters. “I expect the president to discuss democratic, open, free, fair and transparent elections,” he added.

The nature of democracy itself has become a sticking point when planning the guest list for the event. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador wanted to invite the leaders of Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua, but the United States resisted because it considered them authoritarians.

In the end no agreement was reached, and Lopez Obrador decided not to attend. Nor did the presidents of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.

Honduras. The Minister of Foreign Relations, Eduardo Enrique Reyna, spoke about President Xiomara Castro’s decision to walk away.

“The president was very clear that this summit should be a summit without exceptions,” Rina said. However, he said the Honduran government is ready to work on common problems, saying: “The political will to work with all countries in the Americas is there.”

It’s a reminder that relations with Latin America have proven difficult for the administration even as it solidifies ties in Europe, where Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has led to closer cooperation, and in Asia, where growing Chinese influence has affected some countries in the region.

One challenge is the apparent power imbalance in the hemisphere.

World Bank data shows that the US economy is 14 times the size of Brazil, the second largest economy at the top. The sanctions that the United States and its allies have imposed on Russia are much more difficult in Brazil, which imports fertilizers from Russia. Trade data indicates that the region has deep ties to China, which has also made investments.

This leaves the United States in a position to show Latin America why a close relationship with Washington is more beneficial at a time when economies are still struggling to emerge from the pandemic, and inflation has exacerbated conditions.

Sullivan pledged that the United States “will allocate certain dollars to achieve tangible results” in the region, through training workers and money for food security, among other things.

“When you put all of that together and look at the practical impact of what the outcome of the summit from the United States will mean for the public sphere, it greatly affects the actual lives and livelihoods of people in this region from the kinds of extractive projects that China has invested in.”

Harris focused on private sector investment to meet the region’s challenges, particularly when it comes to reducing immigration by creating more economic opportunities in their home countries.

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Buck reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Deborah Alvares in Brasilia, Brazil, and Elliot Spagat in Los Angeles contributed to this report.