The Mercosur social summit questioned any possible approach to the Alliance of the Pacific since it is an organization entirely dedicated to trade which would distract the Southern Cone countries from their social objectives.
Uruguay’s Deputy Foreign minister Roberto Conde is scheduled to travel to Buenos Aires this week as part of President Jose Mujica’s administration efforts to rebuild bilateral relations with Argentina following his ‘coarse, jail-slang’ descriptions of president Cristina Fernandez and her late husband Nestor Kirchner, which were refuted as ‘unacceptable and denigrating”.
Uruguay Minister of Defence Eleuterio Fernandez Huidobro described as an “enormous shame” for the country the fact that two lawmakers from the leading opposition National party travelled to the Falklands/Malvinas to participate as observers of the Sunday/Monday referendum on the Islands political status and future.
Bolivia will begin the coming year formal talks for full membership of Mercosur, for which it has the support from Uruguay, said diplomatic sources from both countries, Bolivian Deputy Foreign minister Juan Carlos Alurralde met with his Uruguayan counterpart Roberto Conde in the framework of the “Bolivia-Uruguay coordination and consultation mechanism” sixth meeting in La Paz.
The French ambassador in Montevideo, Jean Christophe Potton said that when President Nicholas Sarkozy named Uruguay and ten other countries as ‘fiscal havens’, which could be isolated from the International community, he was speaking in representation of the G20 countries summit in Cannes.