MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

CFK invites regional presidents to the official dinner for Russia's Putin

“They say that there is some Russian blood in every sixth Argentine. Many people from our country found their second home in Argentina” said Putin

President Cristina Fernandez, CFK, invited her peers from Bolivia, Uruguay and Venezuela, Evo Morales, Jose Mujica and Nicolas Maduro respectively to participate in a special dinner after her meeting with the Russian head of state, Vladimir Putin on Saturday.

Argentine sources revealed the reunion will take place at 1 pm at Government House in Buenos Aires, and the two leaders will sign a number of bilateral agreements, including atomic energy cooperation, following a closed doors private meeting.

The two leaders are scheduled to announce a joint declaration on Putin's visit and later hold a press conference.

The official dinner will be early and short since Putin wants to fly to Brazil for the World Cup final.

The three presidents invited to the dinner had anticipated their participation in Argentina's 9 July Independence Day celebrations in Tucuman, but at last minute cancelled the trip when Cristina Fernandez announced she would not head the ceremony because of her current health condition. She was replaced by Vice-president Amado Boudou but he has been indicted on corruption charges by the courts and his legal-institutional situation is not clear.

A fourth president had been invited for 9 July, Ecuador's Rafael Correa but he will not be coming this time.

The Latam presidential visits were to represent a strong support for Argentina in the midst of current ongoing negotiations with the holdout funds.

Before leaving Moscow President Putin was interviewed by Russian media and described Argentina as a strategic partner, with more than a century long history of close ties.

“They say that there is some Russian blood in every sixth Argentinian. Many people from our country found their second home in Argentina and in 2015, we will celebrate the 130th anniversary of diplomatic relations between our nations” said Putin.

He added that “today, Argentina is one of Russia's key strategic partners in Latin America, the UN and the G20. Our approaches to the key issues in global politics are either similar or identical and we share the belief that there is a need to create a new and more equitable polycentric world order based on international law with the central and coordinating role of the UN”.

Putin recalled that in May 2014, Russia and Argentina signed a Joint Statement on Not Being the First to Place Arms in Outer Space, which is a good example of cooperation between countries.

In 2009, our countries signed an Action Plan for Strategic Partnership, which has been a basis “for our fruitful cooperation over the last years. We have made significant progress on the goals outlined in it”.

According to Putin over the last decade, trade between Russia and Argentina has grown six-fold and reached a stable level of 1.8 billion, making Argentina one of Russia’s leading trade partners in Latin America.

“Our cooperation is mutually advantageous. For example, we buy the necessary volumes of agricultural produce, which is in high demand in our country, while Russia-produced turbines account for a quarter of the total power generation in Argentina”.

However, projects implemented by Russian and Argentine businesses over the recent years in such areas as renewable energy, power generation, oil and gas, transport machinery and a number of others, have not yielded a substantial increase in bilateral trade.

“We are planning to pay particular attention to enhancing technology and investment cooperation, particularly in such areas as energy, peaceful nuclear energy and mechanical engineering. We also see good prospects for further collaboration in the Antarctica” indicated the Russian president.

Regarding BRICS and Argentina, Putin said that Russia welcomes the Argentine authorities' intention to work more closely with the group, and it is quite possible for BRICS to enter into strategic partnership with Argentina, as with other big developing countries, in both politics and the economy.

However, “the expansion of BRICS is not being considered in practice at the moment. First, we should work out the numerous cooperation formats already created within of our union”.

There are no strict criteria for other states’ accession to BRICS. Each case is considered individually. On the whole, today, more and more countries see the potential of this association. That is why, in the future, the issue of gradually expanding BRICS is likely to be raised, admitted Putin.