MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

We cannot remain silent about Ukraine, President Fernández tells Paris Forum

“There is nothing more revolutionary in today's world than to call for peace,” Fernández stressed

Argentine President Alberto Fernández said Friday during his appearance at the Fifth Paris Peace Forum that “we have the ethical imperative not to remain silent” regarding the war in Ukraine following Russia's military deployment in late February this year.

President Alberto Fernandez assured today that “nothing is more revolutionary in today's world than demanding peace” while participating with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron,

In the panel titled “Universalism challenged by the war in Ukraine,” the South American leader insisted that “if someone thinks that the war is a conflict between the Russians and Ukrainians, he is wrong.”

“That war is presented to us after the martyrdom that meant the pandemic, which exposed all the inequality in the world,” Fernández went on at the Brongiart Palace's main auditorium.

“Some will say, but Argentina and Latin America are food producers, they have a great opportunity ahead of them. I do not want to have a great opportunity as a consequence of war,” Fernández stressed.

“I want to have the opportunity to develop without wars, without people dying,” he added.

“I come from the most unequal continent in the world, where the gap between rich and poor is the widest. That was the case before the pandemic. That was the case before the war. And now that gap is much wider as a result of the pandemic and the war,” Fernández also pointed out. “We must react!” he underlined.

Fernández also proposed that “at the table where peace must be debated, the Southern Hemisphere must be seated because the problem is also ours, it also concerns us.” The Argentine President also underscored the importance of “putting the word 'peace' back in value, even if, to many, it sounds naïve and they think it is an innocent and naïve act to demand peace.”

“There is nothing more revolutionary in today's world than to call for peace,” Fernández stressed. “Argentina does not want to be absent” from this scenario, he added.

“We have the ethical imperative not to remain silent. We have the ethical imperative to be clear. And we have the ethical imperative to demand peace,” he went on.

The panel addressed the differences among the continents about the causes, meaning, and impact of the war in Ukraine.