MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Indian FM welcomed at Casa Rosada

India is Argentina's fourth largest trading partner with US$ 6 billion in exchange. Photo: Argentine Presidency

Argentine President Alberto Fernández Thursday welcomed Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. During the meeting, bilateral issues were discussed, in addition to the South American country's desire to join the BRICS alliance. Also present during the encounter was Argentine Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero.

Vaca Muerta and Argentina's lithium resources were also on the agenda, it was reported.

“We have a trade that last year reached 6,000 million dollars of exchange,” Cafiero told reporters during a post-meeting conference. “We are making progress, not only in food production and exports but also in everything related to the technology industry, [and] nuclear technology applied to medicine,” he added.

Cafiero also said there were “new expectations related to oil and gas,” specifically “the natural gas from Vaca Muerta, and also to strategic mining, such as lithium.” He also admitted Argentina's joining BRICS and the “strengthening an agenda of the global south” was on the table. “We have many points in common to be able to move forward not only in economic agendas but also in political agendas,” said Cafiero.

Jaishankar said that “we talked about a wide range of issues and how to increase our economic cooperation.”

“We also discussed defense. India today is one of the largest exporters of defense equipment in the world. We would like to see how this can figure in our cooperation with Argentina,” he added.

“As far as the current situation is concerned, in terms of the polarization that is going on, countries that have independent views like India and Argentina can work more closely on the situation,” Jaishankar went on.

“In particular, we can cooperate in the area of the global south, on issues of energy and food security,” he underlined.

Cafiero and Jaishankar are to meet again Friday and the visiting official is due to attend a gathering at the Indian-Argentine Business Council in Buenos Aires.

Regarding his visiting colleague, Cafiero explained that ”we have shared different meetings in different events and we have even generated a bilateral meeting between Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi and President Fernandez when participating in the G7 in Germany.“

”That was when the working meeting that took place between both presidents determined that the Indian Chancellor would come to Argentina after so many years of not having a high authority from India to work on our bilateral relationship and cooperation linking the productive sectors of Argentina and India,” he added.