‘I’m here to build bridges…you have access to 400-mn market in South America, we are its heart’: Paraguay President Santiago Pena Palacios

This is your first visit to India as President of Paraguay, the second ever Presidential visit from Paraguay. How do you view India-Paraguay relations today?

This is not the first time, and will not be the last time that the world is living in turbulent times. I think that what we want to achieve from Paraguay is very similar to what India wants to achieve, trying to preserve economic and military dominance through strength…trying to become more relevant on the world stage, through collaboration, through multilateralism.

We, in Paraguay, always refer to ourselves as the island surrounded by land.

Paraguay was a country that was very isolated, and not only in our region, but worldwide. This is something that has changed…During my presidency, I have spent a lot of time building bridges…I am coming to New Delhi again to build a bridge between India and South America. If I have to say in one line, I think that as the drums of war get louder and louder, the hornets of peace have to be still louder.

What are the areas of co-operation you discussed with Prime Minister Narendra Modi…how was your chemistry?

The chemistry was great. I had a chance to meet him personally during the G20 leaders’ summit in Brazil last year…Here in Delhi, he was kind, and I conveyed that India has contributed so much, not only to the world stage, but to the entire civilization. I see India not as a country, not as a continent, but more as a civilization.

There’s so much wisdom in Indian culture, and I say that what India has been able to achieve, and very honestly, what I see Prime Minister Modi has been able to build — it is exactly what I want — is building bridges. I’m trying to build bridges in Latin America, among all the countries in Latin America.

We were, five centuries ago, the place that was uniting the South American region when we were under the colony of the Spanish crown, and 70 cities in South America were founded from expeditions that led from our own capital. So we have the same feeling that we want to be the centre of integration. We are the heart of South America. We want to unite the continent. So, in that regard, for me, coming here is a very important journey of discovering or building bridges between our two regions.

What are the specific areas of cooperation?

India has a lot to offer in terms of technology, what India has done in terms of digitalization is great, and we think that Paraguay could be a great partner in exploring these new technologies and testing these technologies in Latin America.

We also think that there is a great area of collaboration in agricultural production, food production. Paraguay is a powerhouse. We are one of the food baskets of the world. We produce food for more than 100 million people, and we are only 6 million and we know that if we can combine agri-tech with our means of production, we can expand agricultural production.

Pharmaceutical is something that India has played a major worldwide role, and Paraguay could be a great platform for production. One of the advantages of Paraguay is being in the middle of South America.

You have access to a 400-million market, which is Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru, all of these countries surrounding us, and Paraguay has gained a position of being the most competitive market (with) macro stability, political stability, economic growth, ease of doing business and a very pro-business environment.

India faced a terror attack in Kashmir in April this year followed by four days of hostilities between India and Pakistan. How do you view these developments?

We condemned the terrorist attacks right away…we have named Hamas and Hezbollah as terrorist organizations, and the same with the Iranian national guard as a terrorist organization. These are very strong stances. So our position is that only those countries that have suffered the consequences of the war know how difficult it is. We (deeply) sympathize with India. We understand that India has had to face hostilities in the region for a long time. If it was not China in the past, it was Pakistan in the past, and now again. And, of course, India deserves all the rights to defend its country and its people, and we are going to support that.

You attended US President Donald Trump’s inauguration in Washington DC. What is your view of the current administration?

Paraguay has been a good friend of the US forever…whoever was in the Oval Office, we have maintained very good relations. But the truth is that the relations between the White House and Latin America have been more close during the Republican administrations than Democrats.

So, of course, President Biden being a Democrat, but also a person who was not very keen in engaging in an international agenda in general, but also with Latin America…with the arrival of President Trump, it became evident that the relations were going to improve. We feel very optimistic now.

How do you view Trump’s imposition of tariffs, leading to a trade war of sorts?

We understand that the Trump administration wants to reset international trade. We have a very strong view about multilateralism. We believe that multilateralism is the best thing, but we think that the system has been failing for quite some time now, and needs to be reset. In the process of resetting, there will be a lot of turbulence, and this is what we are seeing.

A lot of tough negotiations are going on, and exchange of views with different countries are taking place right now. But in the end, I have no doubt that common sense will prevail and international trade will resume and with ties that are going to be stronger.

You have been a student of Columbia University. How do you view the Trump administration’s actions against university students…

I think and I speak, of course, as a former foreign student in the US, but also I speak as a father of a young woman who’s studying in the US. My daughter is a freshman in Columbia University, and I have been following very closely what happened, particularly after the horrible October 7 terror attacks, and the conflict between Israel and Hamas. And again, I think that in the name of preserving peace and tolerance, many protests went beyond the limit and put many foreign students at risk. So this is an issue that the US government has been raising.

Anti-Semitism is a real concern. My understanding is that the US administration has been raising this issue and has been asking, since the beginning, for cooperation from many institutions in addressing these sensitive issues. Again, speaking as a former foreign student who went to the US to study, nothing more than study, and I see that, in many of these institutions, many of these students go there after requesting for a visa to study, but then they are not spending their time in libraries or classrooms. They are mostly spending their time doing protests on the streets or campuses. And that was not the original reason why they decided to go or why the US decided to grant the visa.

The visa to study in the US is not a right, it is a privilege that the US gives to come and study in their universities. And I have no doubt that whoever wants to study there needs to abide by the law, in the same way, if a Paraguayan comes to study here in India, he will have to abide by the Indian rules and not come here to disturb the community.

Just days ago, Ukraine launched a massive aerial strike on Russia using drones. How do you see this and what does it mean for peace in the region?

We have been a very strong voice since the beginning of the Russia and Ukraine conflict. Paraguay was the most developed nation in the 1800s, and we had to face a war of extermination. Three countries surrounded us and declared war in 1864, so we suffered the consequences of invasion. We suffered the consequences of a war of extermination. So we raised our voice in Ukraine’s defence. We condemned the attack from Russia, and our position is always to look for peace. But in the pursuit of peace, we understand the right to defend.

With the arrival of President Trump, we were very optimistic that this could be the beginning of the end of the conflict, and we have seen the enormous effort that he has put in meeting with President (Volodymyr) Zelenskyy, in talking to President (Vladimir) Putin multiple times. And we are very sad that these conversations are not bringing peace to the region. So of course, we are absolutely not happy with what is happening, the escalation that we are seeing, and we have no doubt that Russia will react to these recent attacks. We are not very happy. We hope that peace could be achieved and the talks could resume as soon as possible.

As a 46-year-old president of a country, what is your message to younger people?

With social media, there is so much information flowing around and much of this information sends wrong messages, encourages antagonism, and hate most of the time. My message is that the world is much better than what you see on social media.

I encourage people to go out, to engage, to get involved. I was not trained as a politician. I decided to enter politics in pursuing a greater and a brighter future for my country. So my request for the youth is to go out to pursue a better future. Don’t get bogged down with the negativity that you always see on social media. I can assure you that as with any other event in the history of humankind, we’re going to not only be able to persevere, but we’re going to prevail. I have no doubt that we’re going to be very successful in overcoming the challenges that this era is putting on us.