MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Kirchner-Lagos summit in Rio Gallegos

In a new act of regional integration Argentine and Chilean presidents will be meeting Friday in Rio Gallegos, Santa Cruz province, for the inauguration of the latest leg of the now asphalt carpeted 250 kilometres road linking with Punta Arenas.

Following the official opening of the 70 carpeted kilometres stretching from Rio Gallegos to Monte Aymond in the common frontier, presidents Nestor Kirchner and Raul Lagos are expected to address several controversial issues of the bilateral relation, mainly the supply of natural gas.

Since Mr. Kirchner took office in 2003 relations between Argentina and Chile have gone through several recurrent sours spells, not only regarding natural gas, (the Kirchner administration gas policy gives priority to the domestic market in spite of export contracts and Chile's almost total dependence of Argentine gas), but also when the naming of the current Chilean Foreign Affairs minister Ignacio Walker a political analyst who before joining the cabinet wrote several highly critical papers of the current Argentine president and his political party, Peronism.

There was also the incident of the breaking in to the Punta Arenas Argentine Consulate by a team of Chilean military intelligence officers and the participation of a Chilean representative in the annual Falkland Islands' Government Office reception in London.

But the presidential summit is also expected to address the unstable political situation in Bolivia which is closely linked to a regional energy integration project

Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Chile and Peru are involved in the drafting of a memorandum which would enable the region to a reliable source of natural gas from the currently developing rich deposits of Camisea in the Peruvian jungle.

This involves building a pipeline which means "Peru would then count with a stable, effective and long term market for its natural gas resources", said a source from the Chilean presidential palace.

Other issues are the coming Mercosur Summit June 19/20 in Paraguay and the Americas Presidential Summit scheduled for the end of 2005 in Mar del Plata, with the participation of US president George Bush.

President Lagos will be back in Santiago next Saturday when he leaves for a visit to Sweden, Holland and Spain.