MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Hostage release and Paris Club in CFK Sarkozy summit

Pte. Sarkozy and Mrs. Kirchner during her last visit to France

With the farmers' conflict in recess for thirty days, Argentine president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, CFK, is preparing to fly next Saturday to Paris where on Monday she will meet with French President Nicolas Sarkozy to work on an agenda of mutual interest which could have significant political benefits.

According to the Buenos Aires press, President Sarkozy will offer Mrs. Kirchner to act as a mediator for the liberation of French-Colombian hostage Ingrid Betancourt who has been held by the FARC rebel group for six years and is exposed to a serious life risk given her extremely delicate health condition. In exchange President Sarkozy could mediate in Argentina's problem with the Paris Club. "Sarkozy wants to fly to Colombia with Cristina Kirchner to ensure the release of Betancourt", said Casa Rosada sources. Apparently Mr. Sarkozy sent a letter to Mrs. Kirchner requesting her help to reach a humanitarian agreement with the FARC leadership and also anticipated his open appeal on French television to the Colombian rebel group for the humanitarian liberation of Ms Betancourt. Mr. Sarkozy allegedly also has a fluid dialogue with Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez the only leader so far to have brokered the release of several FARC hostages but whom the Colombian government of President Alvaro Uribe no longer supports as a mediator following the recent conflict along the border with Ecuador. The Kirchners are very close personal and political friends of the Venezuelan leader. French diplomacy believes that without the OK from the Uribe administration it would be almost impossible to materialize any hostage release and Mrs. Kirchner could play a vital role in this area. Although they have had their clashes, the Argentine president and Colombia's Uribe maintain a speaking, civilized relation and recognize their respective intellectual talents. This plus the fact she's a woman would further help to reach an agreement on the release of Ms Betancourt, a cause celebre in France, reports the Argentine press. And in exchange for Mrs. Kirchner service in Colombia, President Sarkozy has anticipated he is prepared to act as a mediator between the Paris Club and Argentina that because of this difference limits Argentina's to money markets. Argentina owes the Paris Club, (made up of the world's main industrialized countries), 6.5 billion US dollars which she's prepared to pay. But the Paris Club is demanding an IMF audit and monitoring of the Argentine economy, (as established in regulations), something which the Kirchner administration rejects point blank. The Kirchners have made the IMF and "liberal" economics promoting organizations the villains of Argentina's erratic boom-bust economic performance, and responsible for the dire consequences, and thus the IMF presence has become a formidable obstacle to overcome. But Mr. Sarkozy also has a particular interest in the issue since France's Alstom won the bid for supplying Argentina with its first super fast bullet train. The several billion US dollars package includes financing from French banks, but European banks are conditioned to Paris Club limitations, thus frustrating (so far) the whole operation. The Paris Club is an informal group of financial officials from 19 of the world's richest countries, which provides financial services such as debt restructuring, debt relief, and debt cancellation to indebted countries and their creditors. Debtors are often recommended by the International Monetary Fund after alternative solutions have failed. It meets every six weeks at the French Ministry of the Economy, Finance, and Industry in Paris and is chaired by a senior official of the French Treasury.