The Foreign Ministers of Argentina and Chile, Susana Malcorra and Heraldo Muñoz, visited the Sistema Cristo Redentor Pass today, with a view to deepening the initiatives to improve the standards of infrastructure, logistics and operations at all facilities.
In the presence of the Minister of the Interior, Public Works and Housing of Argentina, Rogelio Frigerio; the Minister of the Interior and Public Security of Chile, Jorge Burgos Varela; and the Governor of the Province of Mendoza, Alfredo Cornejo, Malcorra stated that: “Both parties have the aim of achieving coordinated control of the border. To that end, we have established working groups. We must bear in mind that we are not going to solve this overnight. We will have to make investments and unify procedures.”
Joined by the ambassadors of both countries, José Octavio Bordón and José Antonio Viera Gallo, the Foreign Ministers talked to the press. The Argentine Foreign Minister stated that: “This new scheme requires updates and will extend to all bi-national border crossings. We must settle this issue, which dates back many years and is the source of prolonged frustration for both countries, and we must work down to the detail level. We must address and solve every bottleneck. We are going to set deadlines and goals, as well as establish a bilateral follow-up and information mechanism to verify that the deadlines are met”.
The Foreign Ministers visited the “Los Libertadores”, “Los Horcones” and “Uspallata” Complexes. At the end of the visits, they held a meeting with technical teams to analyze the development of necessary improvements: facilitating border procedures, optimizing control procedures and reducing waiting time for users. “During our talks, we detected some problems which have now become homework for each party”, explained Malcorra.