On the third day of her official visit to China, Foreign Minister Susana Malcorra met with the Chinese Minister of Trade, Gao Hucheng, and with the General Director of the National Energy Administration, Nur Bekri, today in Beijing. In addition, she chaired the meeting with the China Export & Credit Insurance Corporation (SINOSURE). The Foreign Minister was joined by Argentine Ambassador to China, Diego Guelar.
Yesterday, following her meeting with her counterpart, Wang Yi, Malcorra assured that a transition that involved a revision of previous projects is coming to an end "jointly and satisfactorily for both parties," and ratified the strategic partnership with China to move forward with new agreements. Malcorra mentioned the cases of the hydropower plants in Santa Cruz and the space facility in Neuquén. Regarding the first case, she stated: "we needed to take this time to analyze the project because it had not been opened for bids as a final project, so there was no certainty with respect to its cost. An agreement has now been signed to limit its scope and make it predictable." With regard to the facility in Neuquén, Malcorra explained: "China has reaffirmed that it will be used for exclusively civil purposes. This was a concern for some sectors in Argentina, which is why now there are no objections in this regard either."
Speaking to Radio Mitre this morning, Minister Malcorra announced that she will return to Argentina sooner than planned in order to welcome the new Brazilian Foreign Minister, José Serra, on Monday at the Palacio San Martín. "We are starting to work with the new administration. We will have a first meeting with Foreign Minister Serra so that we can sit down, compare notes, and discuss how to handle our bilateral relations and how we will position ourselves from our region, from MERCOSUR, where we have a lot of work ahead of us now that there has been an initial exchange of offers with the European Union. We want the meeting to be productive; we want to know more about each other and enrich our relationship."
Asked about her potential candidacy as United Nations Secretary General, she said: "That decision is President Macri's to make; he will decide based on what he views as opportunities to put Argentina on the global scene in different ways. It looks like he is inclined to make the nomination. It is a choice, and a vote of confidence. After that, there is a long selection process. The Security Council takes a direct vote, which begins in July. The definition is usually reached by the month of October. There is no fixed schedule. In the meantime, I will continue to work full time as Foreign Minister, as I have done up to now. Once a decision has been made, if I were to be elected to the United Nations, I would have to resign as Foreign Minister. But that will not happen before October. So I will continue to work as I have done so far," Foreign Minister Malcorra explained.
Press release No. 146/16.
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