MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Pulp mills dispute: “no negotiations under pressure”

Uruguayan authorities “will not negotiate under pressure” was the short message to the Spanish King envoy that arrived Friday in Montevideo acting as a “facilitator” in the controversy with Argentina over the construction of pulp mills.

"I have informed Ambassador Juan Antonio Yañez-Barnuevo Uruguay's position made public by President Tabare Vazquez which is that we don't negotiate under pressure, be it bridge blocking, economic or political obstructions", said Ambassador Jose Luis Cancela, the number three man in the Uruguayan Foreign Affairs ministry who met the Spanish envoy in Government House.

Before arriving in Montevideo Friday, Ambassador Yañez spent Thursday in Buenos Aires where he met with cabinet chief Anibal Fernandez and the Argentine Foreign Affairs minister Jorge Taiana.

Argentine president Nestor Kirchner was present in the meeting for a few minutes and was handed a personal letter from King Juan Carlos.

Ambassador Cancela said that the fact Uruguay rejects pressure does not imply that "we're open to dialogue, as we have always been".

However the Uruguayan representative declined to reveal the content of the talks with ambassador Yañez.

"We respect the King of Spain for whom we have great esteem and his envoy has requested confidentiality which is an indispensable element in this type of "facilitating" actions", said Ambassador Cancela.

Nevertheless Cancela did say no proposals, formulas or paths to follow were considered since there's no such thing as "a process or any proposal because it's not a mediation but a facilitating action from the King to help with the dialogue (with Argentina)".

"We've only talked, there's no map route" said Cancela who defined the meeting as "very positive".

Following the meeting with Ambassador Cancela in Government House, Yañez stopped at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for a brief meeting with Minister Reinaldo Gargano and together they left for lunch.

Cancela joined the group later since he stayed at Government House to inform President Vázquez of the meeting with the King's envoy.

Originally Ambassador Yañez was to meet with president Vazquez's top advisor and head of the Executive Secretariat, Gonzalo Fernandez but he was delayed in Washington where he's lobbying before the World Bank for a loan of 170 million US dollars for the controversial Finnish Botnia-Orion pulp mill currently under construction.

This is precisely the pulp mill which Argentina objects arguing environmental pollution and has sent a delegation to Washington with the purpose of preventing the World Bank from granting the loan to the Botnia-Orion project.

The World Bank board was scheduled to meet Wednesday but following a presentation from the Argentine delegation the loan decision was delayed until next week.

Argentine environmentalists have been consistently blocking access to bridges leading to Uruguay to protest the building of pulp mills causing great economic losses. A Mercosur arbitration tribunal, on request from Uruguay, ruled against Argentina for not ensuring the free circulation or goods and services in the region.

On its side Argentina is demanding Uruguay before the International Court of The Hague arguing that Uruguayan authorities have ignored the 1975 shared administration agreement of the river Uruguay for having allowed the pulp mills construction without having previously consulted the Argentine government.