Yulia Svyrydenko, First Vice Prime Minister - Minister of Economy of Ukraine

 

In trade statistics, the Americas south of the United States with all the Caribbean island countries look like a distant country. In 2023, we exported $135 million worth of goods to all these countries – the same amount as to Serbia. Not the best comparison for 33 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, isn`t it?

Unfortunately, due to its remoteness and regional political processes, this good quarter of the planet can sometimes seem like another world. And from their perspective, Ukraine is a different world too.

Of course, in 2024, trade figures will be higher due to improved logistics for all categories of goods. However, the figure remains indicative. At the beginning of the millennium, exports to Latin America were much higher. We supplied more than USD 1 billion worth of goods to Brazil alone, including large quantities of fertilisers and steel products.

Over the past 20 years, our ties with Latin America, at least until the end of 2022, have weakened to the point where it is difficult to improve them using conventional diplomatic and trade policy tools.

However, it should be noted here that in the diplomatic world we have quite strong support for Ukraine. For example, the July UN resolution on Ukraine`s nuclear security was supported by many countries in the region, including the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Argentina, and Uruguay. Moreover, it was Argentina that co-authored the resolution. And the significant votes against it, from Cuba and Nicaragua, remind us that Russian influence in the region is not only present, but also has quite deep roots.

The same is true in trade policy. Despite our small trade turnover, we have a lot in common with the major countries of the region on global trade issues. Thus, at the World Trade Organisation, we are united with Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Guatemala, Paraguay and other countries of the region in the Cairns Group, which defends openness of trade in agricultural products.

But perhaps the first and most important thing we have in common is that Ukraine, like the former colonial countries of Latin America, places the ideals of freedom, independence and territorial integrity as the highest value. The second is the significant Ukrainian community in the region, which systematically lobbies for Ukraine`s interests at all levels. Third, certain processes are similar. 

For example, at meetings with colleagues from Peru to Uruguay, we almost always talk about the possible supply of equipment for hydroelectric power plants. Why? It was Ukrainian engineers and Ukrainian enterprises that built them in this region during the Soviet era, for example, the famous Salto Grande hydroelectric power station. Therefore, cooperation in this area would be mutually beneficial for both Ukraine, which suffers from Russian shelling of its energy system, and Latin American countries.

Somewhere, this has been forgotten, because the USSR is often still associated only with Russia, although less frequently, and somewhere, some of our enterprises have lost contact with Latin American business.

This commonality of interests proves that the opportunities for our cooperation are much greater. But this requires that the importance of cooperation with Ukraine be not only a matter of diplomacy, but also of the business and cultural establishment, the public, and thus a priority for state leaders. Politicians need to understand how important it is to achieve peace in Ukraine and how it directly affects the interests of the states in the region.

Large-scale infrastructure projects, strengthening our economic ties and displacing Russian influence in the region are only possible if there is trust between our governments. And this trust is being built through an ongoing personal dialogue.

It involves deepening personal contacts with the political leadership of the region. I remember how, in the early stages of working on President Volodymyr Zelenskyy`s Peace Formula, I had the opportunity to discuss ways to establish peace in Ukraine with Brazilian President Lula da Silva. At the same time, during the inaugural events, I managed to establish contacts with the leaders of many countries in the region. We later continued our dialogue at other international events, such as the Davos Forum.

Following President Zelenskyy`s meetings with Argentine President Javier Milei, a government delegation and I visited Buenos Aires, as well as Santiago and Montevideo, where we gave a significant boost to cooperation with the economic bloc of the governments of these countries, as well as with the ministries of foreign affairs, agriculture, and defence. And what is important, we gave a boost to cooperation with business. We already have examples of Ukrainian companies that have expanded their geography to Latin America, such as Soft Serve. But we also want Latin American businesses to invest in Ukraine. During our meeting with entrepreneurs, companies from the pharmaceutical, agricultural, and processing sectors expressed interest in doing so.

Almost immediately after our visit, Argentina joined the Ukraine Defence Contact Group (UDCG), a Ramstein format.

The success of the intensified dialogue with the countries of the region was particularly noticeable during the Peace Summit in Switzerland, which was attended by the Presidents of Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, and Guatemala. Argentina joined two points of President Zelenskyy`s Peace Formula — radiation and nuclear safety and the restoration of Ukraine`s territorial integrity — where it became a co-leader.  In addition, after our visit, it joined the international coalition for the return of Ukrainian children.

In the future, we see prospects for cooperation primarily in ensuring global food security — both in the format of implementing President Zelenskyy`s Peace Formula and in policy-making in all other formats.

Strategic trade policy is an important aspect of cooperation. After decades of neglect, active work is now underway to define a format for cooperation. This includes a dialogue on possible accession to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), of which Peru, Chile and Mexico are members and Costa Rica, Ecuador and Uruguay are candidates (along with Ukraine). As a candidate country for EU membership, Ukraine is following the development of relations between the EU and Mercosur, as the free trade agreement with Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay with the EU may affect both our trade now and future prospects as an EU member.

Any possible scenarios for the development of trade regimes with the region will only be successful if the foundation of trust between governments and businesses is substantially strengthened now. For this purpose, we use every opportunity to maintain a dialogue at the highest governmental level. We are working on joint projects, preparing a Ukraine-Latin America summit in the near future, joining forces to counter Russian propaganda in the region, which harms not only Ukraine`s interests but also the democratic governments of Latin America, and, of course, looking for opportunities to strengthen economic cooperation.