MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Mondino says all Chinese people look the same and becomes social media laughingstock

Mondino was in Paris to negotiate Argentina's accession to the OECD

Argentine Foreign Minister Diana Mondino took heavy social media flak Thursday after her remarks in a newspaper interview that all Chinese people looked the same. Therefore nobody could know whether or not the staff at the controversial base in the Neuquén province were scientists.

Mondino claimed that no military personnel had been identified at the facility: “Those who went to investigate did not identify any military personnel. They are Chinese, they are all the same,” Mondino told Clarín's Paris correspondent.

After Argentina's rapprochement with the United States, the actual scope of that installation is key to Washington's global strategy and US Southern Command Chief General Laura Richardson made it clear during her visit to Argentina last month.

“Inspections have already been done on the Chinese and European Space Station. The same team went to both and in the same week, those teams did not perceive anything unusual,” Mondino explained. “What they are going to do is to set up science and technology or Argentine research teams that can take advantage of these resources,” she insisted.

“Because in the Chinese base, they can use, not only the equipment, but for a certain amount of time. And Argentina is not taking advantage of that,” she went on.

Mondino was in Paris to negotiate Argentina's accession to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), for which she was given a roadmap that the Libertarian administration of President Javier Milei needs to follow. The process might take up to five years, it was explained. The OECD is also known as the “club of developed countries.”

The Argentine government must implement an agenda of structural reforms in the areas of trade, investment, environment, inclusive growth, and anti-corruption practices as a requirement to join the exclusive group of the world's 38 most advanced economies, which already includes Chile, Costa Rica, Colombia, and Mexico from Latin America. During her stay in the French capital, Mondino met with OECD Secretary-General, the Australian Mathias Cormann.

According to the document delivered to the Argentine Foreign Ministry, “the obligations of OECD membership also include the conclusion of an appropriate Agreement on the Privileges and Immunities of the Organization in accordance with the privileges and immunities that Member States should be prepared to grant to the Organization in order to ensure its independence and proper functioning. This agreement must be concluded before the OECD Council takes the decision to invite the candidate country to become a Member.”