Foreign Minister Susana Malcorra remarked today that the relationship with the United States "is the sort of relationship that we must establish with any new administration. Bridges and links have already been built: the first sign of this is the fact that yesterday Mike Pence contacted President Macri and the US Vice President himself stated that this is the first step towards a new conversation between both Presidents ".
"Our goal is to deepen the agenda and determine whether it will include any changes according to the priorities of the new administration” said Malcorra, who also mentioned that she will hold a bilateral meeting with the new Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, next week in Germany.
In an interview with Radio 10, Malcorra explained that: "There is a trend of discontent in the world which challenges traditional leadership. The tendency to close doors, to only look inwards, has never led the world to a period of growth or to positive results. We believe in an open, integrated world, in inserting Argentina into the world, because we have seen, from our own experience, that shutting off did not work."
The Argentine Foreign Minister added that "we take into account what is happening, recognize it and adapt to changes because those movements also create new opportunities."
By way of example, she recalled that: "We were very focused on the Mercosur-European Union Agreement. We worked on it throughout the last year and, even though we were pushing hard and the EU was interested, it was clear that the EU’s main priority was to conclude its agreement with the United States. The fact that that agreement will no longer be signed has caused the EU to devote all of its efforts to the agreement with Mercosur. In other words, something that is not good in itself, as is the new tendency to challenge openness, actually offers opportunities for us."
"Yet another opportunity for us is the current revision of the NAFTA agreement and the relationship between Mexico and the United States. Mexico has always privileged, understandably, its relationship with the United States. Now I am going to talk with my counterpart in Mexico and other Ministers of the Cabinet about the opportunities to move forward faster and more vigorously in the relations between Mexico and Argentina, between Mexico and Mercosur, and between Mercosur and the Trans-Pacific Union. This means that suddenly new paths open up and we must take advantage of this fact," concluded Malcorra.
Press Release No. 031/17
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