MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chile-Argentina relation is “more than gas or an article”

Chilean President Ricardo Lagos strongly stated that relations with Argentina involve “more than gas and more than a newspaper column” and they “are the exact level where they must be”.

Mr. Lagos who is currently on a state visit to Romania, Hungary and Turkey, was referring to the controversy triggered following the recent naming of Ignacio Walker as his Foreign Affairs minister.

Argentina reacted negatively to Mr. Walker's designation because of a column published last May in El Mercurio titled "The gas crisis" where he is critical of the ruling Peronist Party and of President Kirchner.

In the column Mr. Walker says that the only wall between Chile and Argentina is not the Andes, but rather "the legacy of Peronism and its perverse logic". Further on he wrote Mr. Kirchner was more concerned with his popularity than respecting treaties and considered Peronism "authoritarian and neo-fascist".

In spite of Mr. Walker's insistent apologies Mr. Kirchner froze a programmed official visit to Chile at the end of November and Foreign Affairs minister Rafael Bielsa said the controversy with time would be over, but "he would not forget".

However according to the Argentine press, Mr. Bielsa apparently was feeling sorry for having over reacted in an interview when he said that "President Kirchner would not shake hands with Mr. Walker" implying the official visit to Chile was off.

But President Lagos speaking from Romania definitively put an end to the controversy, "relations with Argentina are not influenced because we're short of gas or because of a newspaper column the Argentine government doesn't like".

"Chile's relation with Argentina is more than gas, Chile's relation with Argentina is more than an article therefore I must tell you relations are exactly at the level where they must be".

President Lagos also confirmed his ample support to the incoming Foreign Affairs minister Ignacio Walker by taking him in the official delegation currently visiting several European countries.