MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

CFK and Mujica underline ‘importance of dialogue’ and overcoming conflicts

The two presidents in Casa Rosada

President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, CFK, underlined the importance of dialogue between Argentina and Uruguay which enable to overcome ‘conflicts’, while her Uruguayan peer Jose Mujica said that the “good neighbours” policy is the only way forward and a win-win situation for both sides.

“More than economic and cooperation agreements, we must underscore the value of dialogue” said the Argentine president adding that ‘talking’ and ‘discussing’ opens the way to overcome conflicts “which at some time divided us”.

The Argentine president hosted Uruguayan leader Jose Mujica and most of his cabinet at Government House (Casa Rosada) on Tuesday as part of a regular schedule of meetings to address bilateral issues.

Mujica praised the “association policy” that has been established among both governments and pointed out that “the agenda of negotiations has no end, but that is because that’s life” since when one problem is solved another emerges.

“But speaking people understand each other and the time has arrived which demands we understand that our good fortune is closely bound to our neighbours”, said Mujica.

Following different ministerial meetings the two leaders moved to the Women’s Hall of Casa Rosada to sign several agreements including energy, education, science, navigability, communications, Mercosur and cooperation in several fields, among others. A special mention was dedicated to Uruguay’s support for Argentina and its Falkland/Malvinas Islands sovereignty claim policy.

But the most significant for President Mujica was the dredging of the Uruguay River and having agreed the terms for bid to dredge the River Plate Martin Garcia canal which leads to the country’s Nueva Palmira terminal, the busiest in commodities operations.

Another interesting point of the Buenos Aires Declaration is the creation of an Argentine-Uruguayan business council to monitor bilateral trade, and linking the two countries by rail across the shared Salto Grande hydroelectric dam uniting the cities of Concordia and Salto in Uruguay.

Finally there was a formal lunch for the visiting delegation at the Bicentenary Museum where again Cristina Fernandez pointed out the close links and friendship between Argentina and Uruguay.

“Leaving aside protocol, Pepe (Mujica) I would like to tell you that your presence here means the definitive reconstruction of bonds and friendship among our peoples”, said CFK insisting in the need to rebuild close contacts.

“We must ratify and convince ourselves that it is impossible for a country to prosper and advance if the other is going down”, said Cristina Fernandez. “It’s the same at home, no sectors will survive if others are going down, and this concept must guide our region”.

Finally Mrs Kirchner revealed that several countries want to join ‘with us’ and are looking at Mercosur with different eyes. “As we have seen and we are doing between Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, others want to incorporate themselves, which makes us a very tempting region for everybody”.

“Let us toast for Argentina, for Uruguay, for Mercosur and for South America, the home of all of us”.

Mujica said the people of Uruguay “should not feel like strangers in Argentina” and emphasized that now is the time to “strengthen our alliance,” underlining that “for too many decades we have been living with our backs to one another, concentrating on Europe and things that are far away from us”.

He recalled hard and good times for Uruguayans in the past and the fact Argentina has always received them. “Thank you Argentina, thank you again, more than once we have had to look for refuge here be it for economic, be it for political reasons”.

“I feel most proud to belong to this great friendship between Argentines and Uruguayans. That is our destiny and we can’t go against our destiny…we prosper with our neighbours of we just won’t be going anywhere”, concluded the Uruguayan leader.