MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Mujica and Mrs. Kirchner willing to improve bilateral relations

President Cristina Kirchner at the Casa Rosada meeting with Mujica and his wife Senator Lucia Topolansky

Uruguayan president elect Jose Mujica said “there is no solution out there” for the situation of the Finnish paper mill Botnia, but “we are willing to improve the relationship between both countries”.

Mujica made the statement following a meeting Thursday with Argentine president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner at Government House, Casa Rosada. First Lady and Senator Lucia Topolansky was also present at the meeting,

“We are not pretending to touch the sky with our hands all of a sudden, but we are facing our problems and trying to negotiate,” said Mujica who also reminded that now “we have to wait” until the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague presents its ruling about the case.

During a press conference, Mujica announced that they also discussed during the meeting about “several points of the agenda important for the bilateral relationship,” which include the “Uruguay River issues.”

Mujica also abstained from making comments about the pickets cutting international bridges linking with Uruguay. “Those are internal problems of Argentina and we don’t belong to that legion of ‘opinion-mongers’ who like to meddle in other peoples’ affairs”.

The Uruguayan president-elect anticipated during the electoral campaign that having a non-strained relation with Argentina is a strategic issue for Uruguay and for his coming administration.

Contrary to the current administration of President Tabare Vazquez, who has sustained a strong position in the dispute with Argentina over the pulp mills, Mujica travelled on several occasions to Buenos Aires to meet with the Kirchner couple with whom he has a “fluid relation”.