MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina and Chile renew cooperation and peace vows

Argentine and Chilean presidents Nestor Kirchner and Ricardo Lagos last Saturday led a ceremony in the Andes at 4,200 metres above sea-level before a ten meters tall statue of Christ the Redeemer that was built when the two countries came to an agreement over their borders a century ago.

The site stands above an international tunnel that links the two countries near the town of Las Cuevas in the western Argentine province of Mendoza

The two presidents and their delegations arrived together in a helicopter from the Chilean capital of Santiago where the two leaders had met in private on Friday evening for three hours to discuss bilateral issues.

A joint release stated that both presidents, in the name of their citizens, "renew the solemn commitment to preserve and intensify the ties of friendship, integration and mutual confidence based on a strategic association."

Mr. Kirchner, whose mother was Chilean, expressed his desire to "maintain a level of integration, confidence and harmony without precedent."

"We have a common destiny, we have a common point of view and, God willing, with time we also will be able to give (Argentina) the stability, direction and consolidation that Chile has today," said the Argentine president.

Chile's economy is one of the most stable in Latin America. The country recently signed a free trade agreement with the US and the European Union. Both leaders expressed their opposition to international terrorism after bombs killed nearly 200 people in Spain last week. Kirchner said "it is impossible to condemn such an atrocity strongly enough."

"They are unfortunate and repugnant. Argentines already suffered with the Israeli Embassy and the AMIA," President Kirchner said recalling the 1992 attack that destroyed the Israeli diplomatic mission and the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community centre.

Regarding integration between the two countries Chilean president Lagos said "when we have defined our long-term strategic relationship with Argentina, we are defining a relationship that has to do with the world which we want to be a part of in this century and join in such a way that we have globalization with a human face".

Mr. Lagos also said that he was "extraordinarily happy" with the success of Kirchner's negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and congratulated the Argentine president for the growth of Argentina's economy which last year expanded 8,4%. Mr. Kirchner revealed that during the hard fought negotiations with the IMF, Mr. Lagos "was always close" and in permanent contact.

Also present at the ceremony were Catholic Church representatives, Argentine gauchos and Chilean huasos, as the traditional horsemen of both countries are called respectively.

Both presidents unveiled a plaque expressing "their solemn commitment to brotherhood between the two nations." The plaque is next to the original one dating back to 1904 that reads: "These Mountains will fall before Argentines and Chileans break the peace sworn at the feet of Christ the Redeemer".

However in spite of the 1904 border agreement, the two countries nearly went to war in 1978 over a border dispute involving islands in the Beagle Channel. Pope John Paul II was instrumental in negotiating a settlement that avoided war. "The efforts of Pope John Paul II made it possible to overcome those difficult moments and open a new stage in our relationship" Mr. Lagos said at the ceremony.

From the ceremony site, Kirchner's delegation descended in vehicles to Uspallata and was flown by helicopter to El Plumerillo airport where the presidential plane awaited him for his return to Buenos Aires on Saturday afternoon. From Buenos Aires, Kirchner continued on to Mar del Plata where he attended the International Film Festival that began there Thursday evening.