MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Bielsa: “a blessing Argentina is not a US priority”

Argentine Foreign Affairs Secretary Rafael Bielsa candidly admitted that Argentina does not figure among United States priorities, which he described as “a blessing”, because when the country had Washington's attention in the nineties the administrations “overacted that priority” to the extreme of ending in the December 2001 crisis.

Mr. Bielsa ratified the current Argentine government's intention of obtaining from the British government "a number to discuss" of commercial flights from the Argentine mainland to the Falkland Islands, underlining he was optimistic about the resumption of bilateral talks with London next December, but clearly establishing that "we don't talk with Crown subjects who inhabit Argentine territory".

More specifically on relations between Buenos Aires and Washington Mr. Bielsa said that "we're not a priority and it's lucky we're not. It's something Argentina should value, being a place in the world where conflicts are not that serious so as to have eyes set on us. It's a blessing after all".

Mr. Bielsa justified his words saying that when the US had eyes set on Argentina, "we overacted that priority in such a way, privileging form over substance, that we finished crashed in December 2001. I personally don't like that situation".

However, Mr. Bielsa described the current relation with Washington as "respectful, mature and of reciprocal acceptance".

He also praised President Nestor Kirchner saying he has the "virtue of knowing everything that is going on everywhere" in the Executive, and anticipated that Foreign Affairs would be his last job before retirement.

"Being Foreign Affairs minister, making a good job is a good way to culminate a life in public administration. I feel President Kirchner is going to be my last boss and that I won't have a boss again".