MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Cafiero outlines Argentine foreign policy priorities, trade, Malvinas and Mercosur

The Foradori/Duncan deal is under investigation, particularly what was agreed since it does not comply with the coherence of Argentine foreign policy referred to Malvinas

The main challenge of Argentine foreign policy is to reinstall the necessary tools to recover the trade dynamics that enable the country to recover from the pandemic's economic downfall, plus making it attractive to foreign investors, said Foreign minister Santiago Cafiero summoned by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The minister also mentioned as priorities of his ministry regional integration to be achieved through Mercosur and the Malvinas cause.

When asked about the situation of former deputy foreign minister Carlos Foradori following revelations from Britain's ex Foreign Office minister for the Americas, Sir Ian Duncan regarding discussions on the September 2016 UK/Argentina Joint Communiqué, with a controversial chapter referred to the South Atlantic and the Falklands, Cafiero said the whole incident is under investigation, particularly what was agreed since, the deal does not comply with the coherence of Argentine foreign policy referred to Malvinas.

Asked specifically if the Foradori/Duncan was still effective, Cafiero replied that “other governments trivialized the Malvinas cause”, adding that for example the “tourism flight” between Sao Paulo and the Islands, authorized during the government of ex president Macri, “was suspended”.

Minister Cafiero also said that Argentina will not be supporting the proposal to suspend Russia from G20, scheduled to meet in Indonesia, and defended Argentina's position refereed to the Russia/Ukraine war.

“We believe in multilateralism. We do not support suspending Russia, this is a strictly economic forum which must work for all economies of the world. We can't practice multilateralism without countries attending”.

Answering a question about Argentine president Alberto Fernandez' visit to Moscow at the start of February, and meeting with Vladimir Putin, offering Argentina as “the door of access to Latin America”, which triggered strong political reactions, Cafiero said the president was misunderstood and was only referring strictly to trade issues.

“There was a distortion of President Fernandez words to Putin. They were talking about trade, simply commercial exchanges. The visit to Russia was to promote trade and have investors come to Argentina”

“Our trade relation with Russia is insignificant, and the same happens with the rest of Latin America,” and that is how it should have been interpreted, “Argentina the door of access to Latin America; this had no military or arms content, or double talk, simply trade and investments”

Cafiero explained that the escalation leading to the war situation occurred “well before president Fernandez visited Putin and was part of a pre-existent conflict”. Yes the international community were making efforts to avoid the escalation to reach an invasion as finally happened. “But president Fernandez was in Moscow on February second, French president Emmanuel Macron arrived the following week and sat at the same chair”.