MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

UN: Kirchner criticized the IMF and sent a clear message to Great Britain.

The President said during his speech that “a redesign of the international credit organization is needed”, affirmed his position against terrorism and urged the United Kingdom to restart negotiations for the Falklands-Malvinas.

"An urgent, strong and structural redesign of the International Monetary Fund is necessary so the same can avoid crisis and provide aid, changing its original course as economic development lender to the one of creditor demanding privileges" said the Argentine president on the first day of the Assembly's debate being held at UN headquarters in New York.

"During the last international financial crisis, credit multilateral organizations have shown several failures in the resolution of the same", he explained.

"The solutions proposed resulted in a contagious effect in other countries, internationally enlarging the growth of hunger and poverty", he added.

"The case of Argentina results paradigmatic. After the application, during the 90s, of recipes given by multilateral financial organizations, the country suffered a financial crisis which has not been totally solved yet", states the Argentine president, referring to the crisis which caused his country to default on payment in December 2001.

"We can conclude from our most recent experience and from the other indebtedness crisis, that it is extremely necessary to give national authorities a larger margin of action", claimed Kirchner.

"A different relation with the IMF (International Monetary Fund) is required, prioritizing a solution consistent with the payment capacity of the country", stated Kirchner, whose government is involved in a debt restructuring with private creditors, offering to return 25% of the nominal value of government securities.

In case of not carrying out the reforms suggested, "they will acknowledge their fault, and if we do as they say we will see the number of poor people increase. This is why we say that these international credit organizations are the ones that need structural reforms the most".

Just as several of his peers, and while the memory of how the United States solved the Iraqi crisis is still alive at the UN, Kirchner defended the effectiveness of diplomacy, the United Nations and the multilateral system.

"As a State in favor of peace and committed to multilateralism, Argentina has traditionally supported the solution of disputes through negotiation and dialogue", he reminded.

"International disputes have to be solved through peaceful means", said Kirchner, urging Great Britain "to restart negotiations" regarding the sovereignty of the Islas Malvinas.

"The UN has established, through different resolutions of its General Assembly and its Decolonization Committee, that the Malvinas islands issue is a special colony situation which has to be solved through bilateral negotiations between my country and the United Kingdom.

The Decolonization Committee has stated its position repeatedly in this sense and we extremely value its action towards the search for a solution to this matter.

We would like to reassert once again the permanent willingness of our country to reach a fair, peaceful and lasting solution to this sovereignty dispute which is a matter of significant importance to the people of Argentina.

We urge the United Kingdom to promptly comply with the call of the international community to restart these negotiations.

Within the austral framework, we commit ourselves to protecting the interests of the international community in the Antarctica, guaranteeing that all the activities there developed are compatible with the Antarctic Treaty and with the Madrid Protocol regarding the preservation of the environment.

The establishment of the Antarctic Treaty Secretariat in the city of Buenos Aires is already a reality. We thank for the support of those who have always backed Argentina for this appointment, which will certainly contribute to the attainment of the main objectives of the Antarctic Treaty.