Today, Foreign Minister Felipe Solá received Senator Jorge Taiana and Representative Eduardo Valdés, chairs of the Foreign Affairs Committees at the Senate and House of Representatives respectively, and, together, they reviewed and took stock of President Alberto Fernandez’ recent trip to Portugal, Spain, France, Italy and the Vatican.
The Minister stressed the full support for Argentina’s IMF negotiations shown by the European leaders at every bilateral meeting and highlighted the Argentine President’s meeting with Pope Francis in a spirit of understanding, affection and cordiality. Solá stressed the excellent relationship between the President and His Holiness, stating that their meeting proved that they work in sync with each other. He also stated that the meeting between the President and the head of the IMF, Kristalina Georgieva, had been highly positive and productive.
Solá also mentioned that during the working meetings with the Portuguese Prime Minister, Antonio Costa; the Spanish Head of Government, Pedro Sánchez; the French President, Emmanuel Macron, and the Italian Prime Minister, Mario Draghi, the officials had discussed the need to strengthen global cooperation to face the common economic, health and social challenges posed by the pandemic. He added that the leaders had agreed that vaccines should be considered a social and public good.
Solá explained to Taiana and Valdés that during his meetings with other Foreign Ministers, he made clear the decision of the Argentine Government to diversify, expand and balance bilateral trade with each of these countries, and that the Argentine Foreign Ministry was working to that end with Europe and other regions, promoting our country’s exports and the products of the different Argentine productive regions.
Finally, he stated that during his meetings he had stressed Argentina’s efforts to make progress on the pending issues of the Mercosur-EU Agreement, especially in this semester, during which Argentina holds the Presidency Pro Tempore, and that he had ratified the Argentine position on the Question of the Malvinas in the quest to find a peaceful and negotiated solution for the sovereignty dispute, as repeatedly mandated by the UN and various other multilateral bodies.
