President Cristina Fernández praised the decision by France to file an 'amicus curiae' brief before the US Supreme Court, in a show of support to Argentina in its long-standing battle against speculative fund creditors, and also secured the backing of the French government to settle a 9.5bn dollars dispute with the Paris Club.
President Cristina Fernández (with a sprained ankle in a boot) and Pope Francis shared on Monday a lunch which lasted two hours and a half at Santa Marta residence in the Vatican. It's the third time the Argentine head of state and Francis meet since he was elected pontiff one year ago.
Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman has revealed that the European Union has requested direct talks with Argentina, after a meeting held between President Cristina Fernández and European Commission vice-president Antonio Tajani on the sides of the official inauguration of Michelle Bachelet as Chilean president.
President Cristina Fernandez is expected to visit France for the opening of Paris Book Show, with a great display of Argentine culture and conferences, but most important she will be meeting on 19 March with her peer Francois Hollande to strongly lobby for a better deal with the Paris Club for the payment of a defaulted debt of 10bn dollars dating back to 2001.
The UK and France have agreed to strengthen defense co-operation following a summit at RAF Brize Norton on Friday. A communiqué signed by UK Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Francois Hollande sets out plans for closer ties between the two countries.
A French court has approved a highly controversial “millionaire tax” on annual salaries above €1 million. The super tax, one of President Francois Hollande’s signature policies, has infuriated business leaders and football clubs.
France will lose out in its bid to win a multi-billion-dollar fighter jet contract with Brazil, the Folha de Sao Paulo daily reported over the week-end. It said France’s 4 billion dollars proposal for 36 Rafale fighter jets, from a consortium led by French giant Dassault, will be shot down for cost reason.
Another setback for the French government as the rating agency Standard & Poor’s cut its appraisal of the country’s credit worthiness. It reduced its rating one notch to AA from AA+.
The US National Security Agency’s cyber spying on foreign heads of state from Angela Merkel to Dilma Rousseff is poised to produce its first high-profile corporate casualty: Google Inc.’s operations in Brazil.
France is to cut more than 30,000 defence posts and reduce or delay orders for jet fighters and other equipment as the socialist government seeks to balance the need for stringent spending cuts with a bid to sustain the country’s role as a big military power.