A Chilean ‘Solidarity with Malvinas” group visited this week the Argentine legation in Santiago to meet Ambassador Ginés González Garcia and express their support for Argentina’s claim over the disputed Falklands and other South Atlantic islands.
By COHA guest scholar Silvia Viñas
Foreigners on business trips usually travel from Chile’s Santiago International Airport to the city’s financial center in the El Golf neighborhood via the Costanera Norte or Vespucio Norte highways.
The European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton described relations with Latinamerica as ‘strategic’ and called for an intensification of political dialogue with the region of which the EU is the main foreign investor.
Argentina has great expectations about the coming summit for the official creation of the Community of Latinamerican and Caribbean states, Celac, scheduled to take place next December 2 and 3 in Venezuela, said Foreign Affairs minister Hector Timerman.
It was to be a “complaints as usual day” plus the announcement Uruguay is poised for another year of record exports, close to 12 billion dollars. But the speaker contracted for the celebration of Exporter’s Day left the Uruguayan business audience and government officials quite surprised.
European Union and Latin American leaders called for a quicker pace in concluding the EU/Mercosur cooperation and trade negotiations. The statement took place during the meeting in Brussels of the Euro-Latinamerica Parliamentary assembly.
Brazil’s Foreign Affairs minister Antonio Patriota said Brasilia supports Uruguay in its controversy with France following President Nicholas Sarkozy claim, at the recent G20 summit, that Uruguay was a ‘fiscal haven’.
European and Latinamerican leaders agreed in Brussels that the two continents should continue to strengthen links in spite of the serious financial and economic situation facing the European Union.
Union of South American Nations, Unasur, Economy and Finance ministers will be meeting next Friday November 25 in Buenos Aires to address the current international crisis and advance in a common agenda. The meeting will also include Central bank presidents and governors.
The market for luxury housing in Chile seems to be immune to the global crisis since there are families willing to disburse up to six million dollars to purchase the house or condo of their dream according to a report in Santiago’s El Mercurio.