MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Ibero American summit spotlights on Michelle and Cristina

Pte. Michelle Bachelet with Argentine elected Pte. Cristina Fernández

Chilean president Michelle Bachelet met for half an hour Thursday afternoon in the presidential palace La Moneda with elected president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. Although old friends this was the first official meeting of the elected president with a foreign leader.

The two women leaders from one of the palace's balconies greeted a cheering crowd in Santiago's main square. "This is symbol of our long friendship", said Cristina Fernandez. President Kirchner and the elected president are in Chile for the Ibero American summit which was officially inaugurated late Thursday evening with a gala dinner for all the visiting leaders and ministers. Mrs. Kirchner said that is spite of the fact that the summit is a multilateral event "it has been a pleasure that my first meeting, as elected president with a foreign leader has been with a person of my gender, such as Michelle with whom we have a long friendship". "We talked about what has happened to us", said Mrs Kirchner adding that "we recalled a reception at the Argentine embassy in Santiago a few years ago when it never crossed our minds she could become president of the Chileans or I the president of the Argentines". Argentina's elected president also underlined the close links between both countries and the need to intensify relations. "Every body knows that very soon we'll be commemorating thirty years of the solution to the Beagle Channel dispute and we think it's an excellent opportunity to send strong messages between our countries emphasizing our friendship and bilateral relation", she added. The XXVII Ibero American summit with the participation of representatives from 22 countries, including presidents, vice-presidents, ministers, royals and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will extend Friday and Saturday. The main issue of the meeting is social cohesion and all its implications in different economic, cultural and social fields. At the opening ceremony the speakers were President Tabare Vazquez from Uruguay that hosted the last summit and Chile's Michelle Bachelet. Earlier in the afternoon in a preparatory meeting, the Foreign Relations ministers of all participating countries drafted a resolution in support of Argentina's sovereignty claim over the Falkland Islands and other South Atlantic insular territories.