Negotiations on the Uruguay-Brazil Waterway

Speech Acts in the Minutes of the Technical Secretariat

Abstract

The general objective was to analyze the speech acts recorded in the minutes of the meetings of the Technical Secretariat for the Uruguay-Brazil Waterway, set up through the Agreement between Brazil and Uruguay on River and Lake Transport on the Uruguay-Brazil Waterway, signed in 2010. It is in this bilateral body that the parties seek convergence on technical and operational aspects for the implementation of the project. After more than ten years, fifteen meetings have taken place without the waterway being implemented. Understanding speech acts as those that lead the parties to action, it is assumed that they involve words with the potential to shape social reality. The aim is to prove or refute the hypothesis that compromising speech acts are more present in the records over the period analyzed (2010-2021), suggesting the parties` commitment with the project. This is qualitative research, with content analysis of documentary and bibliographic sources and an analytical purpose. The study allows us to consider that the compromissory acts, although not the main ones, appear in an equivalent number between the parties, suggesting that both Brazil and Uruguay remain pragmatically committed to the project, despite the challenges to harmonize actions and mechanisms for implementation.