“Malvinas is not an Argentine cause, it’s a global cause because they are taking our fisheries and oil resources” said Argentine president Cristina Fernandez on taking the Mercosur rotating chair for the next six months.
Mercosur member countries (Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay) finally agreed Tuesday to close its ports to ships flying the flag of the disputed Falkland/Malvinas Islands, announced Uruguay's president at the closing of the group’s two-day summit in Montevideo.
Paraguayan president Fernando Lugo called for the free flow and free access of his country’s goods to Mercosur senior members’ markets and insisted on the energy integration of the block.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez arrived in Uruguay on Friday to push for his country's incorporation into the Mercosur trade bloc, in his first official trip abroad since undergoing cancer surgery in June.
Uruguayan President Jose Mujica addressing his peers at the Mercosur summit in Montevideo ratified the country’s position barring Falklands’ flagged vessels from Uruguayan ports in active support of Argentina’s sovereignty claim over South Atlantic Islands, which has led to a serious diplomatic controversy with the UK.
The Mercosur presidential summit in Montevideo has been temporarily suspended following the news that a member of the Argentine delegation had committed suicide which left delegation members in a state of shock.
The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) will hold its Annual Meeting in Montevideo, Uruguay March 16-19, drawing top economic decision-makers from its 48 member countries, including finance ministers and central bank presidents.
Argentina supported by Brazil has proposed increasing Mercosur Foreign External Tariff to better defend the group when country members are being flooded with cheap imports.
The Uruguayan president Jose Mujica lost his temper in an incident with a journalist when he was asked what measures the government was planning to avoid a repeat of the situation with a Spanish flagged vessel chased by an Argentine Coast Guard unit and had to take refuge in Uruguayan waters.
Mercosur member countries meeting in Montevideo for their regular six-month summit are drafting a resolution that would bar Falklands’ flagged vessels from all Mercosur members’ ports, following on the traditional Argentine policy and now openly supported by the Uruguayan government.