MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Macron praises Piñera for the political changes; pledges full support to upgrade the Chile/EU trade accord

“You can count with all the support of France in this brave task of drafting a new constitution, in this historic moment”, said Macron next to Piñera at the Elysée Palace.

France praised Chile for its current constitutional process and pledged support for negotiations to upgrade the European Union/Chile trade agreement. President Sebastian Piñera on a tour of European countries was hosted on Monday by his French peer Emmanuel Macron who during a media conference at the Elysée Palace underlined the significance of the political and constitutional transformations taking place in Chile.

“You can count with all the support of France in this brave task of drafting a new constitution, in this historic moment”, said Macron describing it as an unprecedented, democratic process.

Piñera and Macron also agreed on a coordinated agenda which includes climate change, the incorporation of more countries to the Paris Agenda, the COP26 Glasgow summit and carbon neutrality as the path for the future.

Macron congratulated Piñera for his presidency of COP25, backing of bio diversity, preservation of tropical rain forests and invited him to the Oceans Summit. Likewise a strategic alliance to protect forests, oceans, Antarctica, replacing fossil fuels with clean energy sources such as solar, eolic, and green hydrogen, in which the two countries are leaders in their regions.

As to negotiations between Chile and the EU to update and modernize the trade and other areas agreement, Macron anticipated full support, particularly since France will be chairing the EU in the first half of 2022, “the collaboration agreement is ad portas of its final drafting”

Finally, both leaders coincided on addressing the pandemic, the fact that science did such a great job by elaborating vaccines in months when it normally takes years, but also “the grand defeat of politics which has been unable to collaborate sufficiently to prevent and avoid major failures”.

Not absent were mentions to the situations in Venezuela and Nicaragua, and for which Macron pointed out the need of democratic, peaceful, negotiated solutions, that both France and Chile are prepared to work together so it can be achieved.