MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Timerman begins round of regional visits next Tuesday in Montevideo

Uruguay’s Luis Almagro is waiting for his Argentine counterpart

Argentina’s newly appointed Foreign Affairs minister Hector Timerman begins next Tuesday a round of regional contacts which will take him to Uruguay, Brazil and Chile.

Timerman made the announcement Thursday in New York following a day of intense activity at the United Nations Decolonization Committee where he defended Argentina’s claim over the Falklands and other South Atlantic islands.

The first meeting on Tuesday will be with his Uruguayan counterpart Luis Almagro when several urgent issues will be addressed particularly the joint monitoring of the River Uruguay and the dredging of the two main River Plate access channels.

The neighbouring countries have been facing a long standing controversy over the construction of a pulp mill on the Uruguayan side which allegedly contaminates or has the potential of polluting the shared waters.

Uruguay and Argentina recently agreed on a way to solve the dispute and one of the factors to be implemented is precisely the joint monitoring of the River Uruguay

“Argentina and Uruguay will give the world a lesson of neighbourly relations and joint conservation of the environment, differently to other countries whose corporations are responsible for dreadful environmental damage as is currently happening in the Gulf of Mexico”, said Timerman.

Asked about Brazil participation in the joint monitoring, as has been proposed by Uruguay, given that the river crosses is shared by the three countries, Timerman said that “it is something to be decided by the presidents” of the three countries involved.

Timerman on Wednesday is scheduled to arrive in Brasilia and later in the week to Santiago de Chile as part of President Cristina Kirchner’s foreign policy to consolidate relations in the region particularly with the three countries above mentioned.

Timerman took office last Tuesday following the resignation of Jorge Taiana, who had a strong exchange with Mrs. Kirchner. The president accused Taiana of “lack of loyalty” for having leaked information to the press and apparently having met with journalists of Buenos Aires main daily Clarin.

The Kirchner administration is battling to break up the powerful Clarin media group which it accuses of constantly attacking her government (and the previous of her husband Nestor Kirchner) and downgrading their achievements.