Argentine President Fernández vows strategic agreement with Spain to be built

Wednesday, May 12th 2021 - 09:30 UTC

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Spanish Prime Minister Sánchez is expected to visit Argentina in less than a month

Argentina's President Alberto Fernández Tuesday said in Madrid after separate meetings with King Felipe VI and Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez that “we are going to consolidate a strategic agreement and we can relaunch it with your visit and deepen it as much as necessary.”

By “your visit” Fernández meant Sánchez trip to Buenos Aires which has been announced as soon as next month. The Argentine President also said on Tuesday that he has “very high expectations” about welcoming Sánchez in Buenos Aires.

Sánchez will visit Argentina on June 8 and 9, it was announced. Fernández thanked Sánchez for the “sincere support” so that Argentina can “move forward and stand up.”

“Argentina and Spain have to be absolutely united and work in consensus. We have many views in common,“ Fernández went on.

Spain is reportedly working together with other European nations to open financing channels for middle-income countries, something “fundamental to relaunch the economy,” Sánchez said in turn.

Meanwhile, Fernández's meeting with the King was kept private amid tight security measures. And from there Fernández left for the La Moncloa Palace to be welcomed by Sánchez.

Regarding the coronavirus pandemic, Sánchez said ”We are 99 days away from achieving herd immunity.“ Since the beginning of the pandemic, 78,895 people have died in Spain of covid-19, while Fernández insisted it was “a moral and ethical imperative that the vaccine reaches all the inhabitants of the world, and that is the effort we have to make as a global community that we are.”

Sánchez then agreed on the need to “liberalize patents for vaccines” and demanded,“ and the transfer of knowledge and technology, increase production capacities to make it universal, and promote and expedite distribution to all points of the planet.”

Fernández also said Tuesday in Madrid that Spain “together with Portugal there is no other country within the European Union that works so hard to narrow and strengthen relations between Europe and Latin America.” He later left for Paris where he is to head a meeting with businessmen at the Argentine embassy in Paris, after which he is due to see President Emmanuel Macron before flying on to Rome.

During this week's European Tour, Fernández has already received support from Portugal's Prime Minister António Costa regarding negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the rescheduling of the US $ 45,000 million debt. Faced with the worsening of the financial situation due to the crisis unleashed by the coronavirus, Fernández is negotiating with the IMF and the Paris Club to review their interest rate surcharge policy.

Upon arriving at the French capital, Fernández stressed negotiations with the Paris Club were on the right track. He explained that Economy Minister Martín Guzmán “has worked a lot on that and I think we are making progress, then we will surely talk about that issue.“ Argentina seeks to postpone the maturities with the Paris Club and temporarily leave the discussion of a possible rescheduling of the debt conditions, of US $ 2.4 billion.

”Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, and Germany have always accompanied us in our proposals and as we are now making new proposals, we want to convey these to them, and we know we can count on them,“ said the President. Fernández downplayed rumors that he might meet IMF Kristalina Gioergieva while in Rome next Friday.

About meeting Macron, Fernández said that ”he has always been a President who has listened to us.“ He added that the French leader ”has a vision of what is happening to the world and what it needs”