MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

“Malvinas is a global cause” because it involves the grabbing of natural resources

The Argentine president officially takes the Mercosur chair for six months

“Malvinas is not an Argentine cause, it’s a global cause because they are taking our fisheries and oil resources” said Argentine president Cristina Fernandez on taking the Mercosur rotating chair for the next six months.

During her speech to the summit, the Argentine president thanked all Mercosur members and associate states for their support in the Malvinas sovereignty dispute with the UK, which she added is also an open cause in support of multilateralism.

“I want to thank the immense solidarity for Malvinas. This support is not only for Argentina, but in self-defence because they are taking away the mineral and oil resources and when they’ll need more they are going to look for them anywhere,” she continued.

In her speech, the president added that the UK “does not respect any of the resolution” of the international organizations” because it happens to be a permanent member of the UN Security Council”.

The final round of speeches at the Montevideo summit was delayed following the death of a member of the Argentine delegation who was found dead in his hotel room, apparently having committed suicide.

In her speech the new Mercosur chair highlighted that “we must have a vision beyond the commercial one, we have to rely on the region to know that we have to protect each other.”

Cristina Fernandez reminded that “it’s the tenth anniversary of the day in which more than 35 Argentines died” in Argentina, referring to the violent clashes of the police and protesters on December 19-20 of 2001, when the Argentine economy collapsed and the country defaulted.

Argentina went through that experience because for years “we followed the prevailing liberal economics policies which are currently foundering Europe” said CFK who added that since 2003 the emphasis in Argentina has been growth with social inclusion.