MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 29th October, 2021) EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell says he hopes for close cooperation with Paraguay during the country's presidency in the South American trade bloc Mercosur with a view to signing the association agreement, the European External Action Service (EEAS) said on Thursday.

On Thursday, Borrell held a meeting with Paraguay's Foreign Minister Euclides Acevedo in Brussels.
"HR/VP expressed that the EU looks forward to working closely with Paraguay during its Mercosur Presidency next year, with a view to concluding the EU-Mercosur Association Agreement. The Agreement will provide a framework for strengthening and modernising our relations," the EEAS said in a press release.
At the meeting, Borrell and Acevedo also discussed the state of the bilateral EU - Paraguay relationship and the regional developments in Latin America.
The EU and Mercosur announced they had reached a free trade agreement in principle at the 2019 G20 Osaka summit, following two decades of negotiations. But the European Parliament said in 2020 that the pact could not be ratified in its current form due to concerns over deforestation in the Amazon region.
If signed, the EU-Mercosur Association would be the largest free trade deal for the Mercosur bloc, which includes Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, as well as for the EU in terms of tariff reduction on the export of goods to Mercosur countries.