The Genesis of the Argentine-Brazilian Bilateral Integration (1983–1986)

Abstract

When did bilateral integration between Argentina and Brazil begin? How was the process started? Contending arguments have been put forward in the literature and the aim of this chapter is to provide an original answer to these questions about the diplomatic history of Mercosur. The resolution of outstanding major security concerns (nuclear agreements and Plata Basin arrangements), together with a number of initiatives calculated to revitalize trade exchange have led some scholars to identify the turn in bilateral relations of the late 1970s and early 1980s as the starting point of the integration process later to be formalized under the democratic rule in 1986.¹ However, both Oscar Camilión and Ramiro Saraiva Guerreiro, foreign ministers of Argentina and Brazil, respectively, during the late military period, rejected this argument.² Other scholars have given the credit for the launch of the integration process to the newly democratic administrations, and have identified the summit at Foz do Iguaçu, in November 1985, between Presidents Alfonsín of Argentina and Sarney of Brazil, as the starting point of bilateral integration.³