Susana Malcorra: ‘The United States is no longer the beacon of democracy’

Susana Malcorra, former foreign minister and former chief of staff for the UN secretary general, says the world is going through “a time of transition in which what once was no longer is and what will be is still unknown.”

In an interview with Modo Fontevecchia, broadcast on Net TV and Radio Perfil (AM 1190), Malcorra defended multilateralism and defined the agreement between the European Union and Mercosur as “much more than a trade agreement.”

Malcorra, who served in ex-president Mauricio Macri’s government, was the first woman to head Argentina’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Worship. She spent 11 years at the UN, serving three years as chief-of-staff to then-secretary-general Ban Ki-moon.

She is the co-chair of the board of trustees of the International Crisis Group and a member of such organisations as the Atlantic Council and Inter-American Dialogue. She also presides over the global organisation Group of Women Leaders Voice for Change and Inclusion.

In her view, the weakening of the United Nations is in keeping with great powers abandoning the principle of self-control and commitment to international law.

“I believe the time has come for a woman to head the United Nations. I’m deeply convinced of that,” she pointed out.

I’d like you to assess the agreement between the European Union and Mercosur and how it’s experienced from there – with your outlook being closer from Europe, While you were foreign minister, we might say, you laid the foundations for the signing of the agreement, which took 25 years of comings and goings and now would seem to be definitely moving forward with its signing in Paraguay next Saturday.

Mercosur’s agreement with the European Union is much more than a trade agreement. And that’s why I insisted, in any way possible, from here in Spain, for Europe to understand its strategic importance. If both Europe and Latin America are in a situation where they are being given, or demanded, a choice between the United States and China, I believe it’s in the interest of both regions to keep all options open.

Having generated this opportunity to unite a market of the size of Europe and Mercosur, having understood that there is a strategic sense behind this, a sense of giving each other options