MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Johnson/Macri, a ten-year friendship since they were mayors of London and Buenos Aires

Macri first met Boris Johnson in January 2009, at the Davos economic summit, and according to witnesses “they got on very well at the meeting”

The Argentine media is pointing out that Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Argentine president Mauricio Macri first met when they were mayors of London and Buenos Aires, --and full of ambitions--, and have since had a cordial standing personal relation. The first meeting took place at the Davos summit, Switzerland, in January 2009, and according to witnesses the chemistry was immediate.

Macrí's long time foreign affairs advisor, Fulvio Pompeo, apparently was the man who suggested to Macri he should meet the London mayor, a Conservative politician who had removed Labor from the English capital, described as charismatic, somehow anti-system and insolent. They got on very well at the meeting in a Davos hotel.

Ten years later, Macri waited until 09:00 in the morning of Tuesday 23 July to send a Whatsup message of “Congratulations” to Boris Johnson who had been nominated to replace Theresa May as UK prime minister.

Boris Johnson visited Buenos Aires in May last year during his short time as foreign secretary for the G20 summit of foreign ministers and is remembered for having paid homage to all combatants fallen during the 1982 South Atlantic conflict, at the Malvinas war monument in downtown Buenos Aires with then his peer Jorge Faurie.

At the time Boris Johnson also praised Argentina for its efforts to open the economy and to integrate to the world, actually one of the few successes of the Macri's administration.

Argentina media also points out that the new cabinet and PM Johnson will be totally absorbed by the Brexit challenge, plus the conflict with Iran and relations with Donald Trump who enthusiastically anticipated Boris will do “a great job”.

Latin America is not an immediate issue for the new Johnson administration, although Argentine media acknowledges that UK supported Argentina at the IMF board when it requested financial aid, and also when the Buenos Aires candidacy to organize the G20 and World Trade Organization summits.

Since Macri took office in 2015, and with ex PM Theresa May, they agreed on a constructive, mature cooperation bilateral relation, and since then issues between Argentina and UK have moved on a fast track, probably with the exception of the Falklands' sovereignty claim talks.

This did not prevent the 2016 joint communiqué with a specific chapter referred to the Falklands and South Atlantic interests with outstanding landmarks such as the identification of Argentine soldiers' remains, (praised by the Red Cross), the resumption of joint scientific cruises in the South Atlantic to assess fisheries stocks, and close cooperation during the loss of the ARA San Juan submarine.

However with the target of delivering Brexit by October 31, as promised by PM Johnson, and the recently announced Mercosur/European Union agreement, the Argentine media is speculating with the emergence of a different scenario, both politically and economically when it comes to the Falklands.

Politically because with UK outside the EU, it will not count with a solid block of support for its Overseas Territory from the 27, and economically, since Spain, the main market for Falklands produce, will most probably have to apply tariffs, if not quotas, to the Islands' exports. Spain is also politically weak unable to form a coalition government or how to solve the Catalan independence defiance.

These factors and the good relation Macri/Johnson could, Argentine media speculates, bring better opportunities for the long term claim and, hopefully, solution to the Malvinas Islands dispute.

But again Johnson's agenda is fully packed with other issues, and so is Argentina in the midst of a decisive presidential election which can confirm expectations of long delayed reforms or a fall back to populism with opinion polls showing the electorate almost split in halves.