MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Bachelet and Kirchner meet in Mendoza

President Michele Bachelet met with Argentine President Néstor Kirchner on Tuesday in Mendoza to finalize matters related to a proposed new trans-Andean train.

The meeting was expected to showcase the "normalization" of diplomatic relations following the recent controversies over natural gas contracts and an Argentine map that showed the contested Southern Ice Fields territory belonging to Argentina.

Kirchner was quoted as saying, "It's hard for Chile and Argentina to live together, but it's something we have to do."

Bachelet argued that it was time to "finalize regional integration."

Kirchner was accompanied by his foreign secretary Jorge Taina, his cabinet chief Alberto Fernández, and his planning minister Julio de Vido. Also accompanying the President was his wife, Sen. Cristina Fernández.

Accompanying Bachelet were Public Works Minister Eduardo Bitrán, Chilean ambassador to Argentine Luis Maira, and Foreign Relations Undersecretary Alberto Van Klaveren.

Van Klaveren - who was in Buenos Aires last Friday for a conference with the Chilean consulate and to arrange Tuesday's meeting - represented Foreign Minister Alejandro Foxley, who left for a G-20 meeting in Rio de Janeiro last Friday. He has been in Washington since Tuesday to focus on commercial and academic affairs prior to his participation in the General Assembly of the United Nations, which begins next week.

Some newspaper accounts speculate that Foxley's absence could diminish his role as Foreign Minister, especially because of the problems caused by the gas crisis.

It was during the last gas impasse - a tense moment between La Moneda and the Casa Rosada - that Foxley insisted on denouncing the shutoffs of natural gas and the price escalation exceeding the rate agreed to by Planning Minister De Vido in last July's Bachelet-Kirchner meeting in Córdoba.

Foxley has reportedly clashed with Chilean Ambassador Maira, and some accounts suggest their enmity influenced Foxley's absence from the Mendoza meeting, an interpretation categorically denied by Foxley associates.

By Cynthia McMurray The Santiago Times