Brazil's economic and social bank, BNDES, denied it was intent in financing Uruguay's deep sea port on the Atlantic coast, as repeated sources in the Uruguayan government have indicated.
A clear majority of Uruguayans, 61% believe Argentina is the less friendly country, according to a March 13/23 public opinion poll, with 1.013 interviews in Montevideo and the main urban locations in the rest of the country.
Uruguayan president Jose Mujica currently in Beijing on an official visit, underlined the significance of China in trade and investments fro South America, but also admitted there is some ‘fear’ mainly from Argentina and Brazil about a greater integration and dependency from the Asian giant.
Uruguayan President Jose Mujica begins on Wednesday the longest and most ambitious of his overseas trips hoping to convince China to invest in infrastructure projects that are crucial for the development of the country and its foreign trade: a deep water port and recovering the rail cargo network.
Vice-president Danilo Astori admitted on Friday that economic-trade relations with Argentina continue to deteriorate and seriously question Mercosur and Uruguay must therefore speed the search for other alternatives.
Uruguayan president Jose Mujica approval plummeted to 39% in July, the lowest since taking office among other reasons for his plan to de-criminalize marihuana and his handling of the controversy with Argentina, according to the latest public opinion poll made public this week.
Foreign Minister Hector Timerman said that Argentina “is ready to sign” the deep dredging of the River Plane access canal Martin Garcia but warned that before doubts generated by Uruguay’s National Auditing Office regarding the performance of dredgers’ Riovía during the tender process, must be resolved.
Uruguay will continue “to look after” Mercosur in spite of the strong diplomatic discrepancies with Argentina, but will also continue with an interest in participating in other trade blocks of the region, said President Jose Mujica.
The Uruguayan government said on Monday there will be no public statements on the latest “situations” with Argentina, and Uruguay will keep to what was agreed at presidential level during the last (31 July) Mercosur extraordinary meeting in Brasilia.
Uruguayan president Jose Mujica said on Monday it “is not useful” for foreign ministries to publicly exchange letters following Argentina’s latest message accusing Uruguay of not collaborating in exposing claims of alleged bribes involving the works planned for the widening and deep-dredging of the River Plate access canal Martin Garcia.