MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina has great expectations with Biden's multilateralism and a “common friend”, Pope Francis

Argentina hopes the new US administration will give the country an extra hand in negotiations with the IMF and with the bio-fuel exports, limited since 2017.

The administration of president Alberto Fernandez is convinced that Argentina is not a priority for the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris government, because as ambassador Jorge Argüello in Washington was repeatedly told when he tried to establish closer links, “one president at a time.”

Anyhow the Argentine administration has high expectations with the Biden presidency since it believes the US will abandon “its isolation policy” implemented under ex president Trump and will return to multilateralism.

Argentina hopes the new US administration will give the country an extra hand in negotiations with the IMF and with the bio-fuel exports, limited since 2017.

President Fernandez and foreign minister Felipe Sola also believe that a 35 minutes chat with Biden last November when they both referred to a “common friend” Pope Francis, will help with bilateral relations, to distend relations among countries in the region and help with a “peaceful and democratic” outcome for the Venezuelan situation.

“Biden has announced the US willingness to fully return to multilateralism, and this is the policy of Argentina, and which we expected to listen from the US president. We celebrate the re-energizing of dialogue and negotiations in multilateral spaces” said ambassador Argüello.

The ambassador also mentioned that his team is already working for a presidential meeting of Biden with Fernandez and trusts that US influence in the IMF board will help Argentina reach an accord with its standing debt, in coming months.

Argentine diplomacy also emphasizes the fact that Biden is the second US Catholic president (the first was John F Kennedy) and he has a close relation with Pope Francis.

“The Pope is our great ally in international policy”, which allegedly sponsored president Fernandez during his European tour to interview German chancellor Angela Merkel, and Economy minister Martin Guzman to meet with IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva.

With Biden in the White House, president Fernandez plans to act as a bridge to achieve “democratic elections” in Venezuela as well as an end to the embargo. A joint task he wants to share with ex Spanish president Jose Luis Rodriguexz Zapatero plus Sweden and Norway.