MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentine president suggests Celac joins G20

The IMF clung to its dogmas and was incapable of finding new solutions, Fernández stressed

Argentine President Alberto Fernández suggested before the G20 Summit in New Delhi that the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac) should join the forum of the world's leading economies, just as the African Union was accepted into the group this year.

“I welcome the addition of the African Union to this G20. It is a profoundly just act that allows us to know and address the needs of this wonderful continent. I hope that in the future the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, which faces similar problems to those faced by Africa, can join this forum”, said Fernández.

The South American leader also questioned the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for clinging to “its dogmas and showing itself incapable of new solutions,” criticized Russia's ongoing military presence in Ukraine, and condemned “financial speculation, restrictions, blockades, and trade barriers” worldwide.

“The IMF, of which we are debtors, clung to its dogmas and showed itself incapable of innovating new solutions to face the catastrophe,” Fernández stressed. He also pointed out that “the Global South exists and many of the countries that comprise it suffer from indebted economies due to the conditions imposed by the international financial system that we criticize so many times.”

Argentina suffered the “worst drought in the last one hundred years” and the subsequent “drop in exports equivalent to three points of our GDP”, so that “climate change altered all our plans,” Fernández also argued.

“These kinds of disasters are observed today all over the world,” the Argentine President went on and insisted that “declaring the crisis will not end up solving” the problem. Hence, he underlined “the need to finance the climate solution.”

Fernández also highlighted that “most of the countries of the global south are environmental creditors.”

“We were not the cause of such a climate disorder. Even so, in all this time we put oxygen where others polluted, but nobody recognized our contribution,” he added.

“This is the fourth G20 in which I have participated. We have had common views on the problems we face but we have not been able to solve them. It seems that we soothe our consciences with words while we continue walking on the ledges,” Fernández also noted while urging his colleagues to “work more firmly to be able to consolidate a fairer world in a healthier environment.”

The pandemic “has not moved us enough to rebel against such inequality,” the Argentine president also argued.

After mentioning the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Fernández also warned that “there is concern about hunger and food security, which is in crisis because millions of people do not have access to food and this is happening largely because we have allowed financial derivatives to contaminate the trade of products necessary for food and turn them into another object of speculation in the futures markets.”

“South America can contribute to satisfying world hunger, but it will not be able to do so if financial speculation interferes or if restrictions, blockades, and trade barriers prevail. The enormous subsidies granted by a few countries are distorting trade,” he stressed.

Also during his participation in the G20 Summit, Fernández met with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to discuss the issue of Celac and the European Union.

The South American leader also held a meeting with the Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman, with whom he reviewed possible “investments in energy in view of the energy transition.” Fernández and the Saudi prince addressed issues such as critical minerals and partnership options in energy issues. In addition, they talked about the recent incorporation of both countries into the BRICS group of emerging nations.