(Link with pictures of the conference: https://youtu.be/U9XnXcUQaHQ)
Argentine Foreign Minister Susana Malcorra offered a conference today at the Palacio San Martin, during which she addressed in depth several topics related to the visit of the President of the United States of America, Barack Obama, including the following:
THE VISIT:
"I think that the visit of President Obama is very important to us because it demonstrates the interest of his administration and the priority placed by it on the administration of President Macri. I was personally surprised by the date chosen: I would have thought that he would visit later in the year, but the fact that he chose to do so now demonstrates that his administration is very well predisposed. You are all aware that the White House does not organize these trips in a rush, which is why this has come as a pleasant surprise."
"I insist on demystifying these trips. The presence of President Obama, President Hollande, or Prime Minister Renzi is no magical solution to all problems. These visits are a signal of openness, willingness and trust; and above all, they are a signal to the private sector in the country of origin. I believe these signals accelerate a process that would have otherwise taken longer to begin. This is the beginning of a long path, but it is a very promising start."
DRUG TRAFFICKING AND TERRORISM:
"Our Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) has entered into an agreement with its American counterpart, which is a prerequisite to start sharing information in a systematic and orderly manner. This is not limited to drug trafficking, but rather applies to all information about organized crime and money laundering. We believe that, as we begin sharing information with the United States and with the rest of the world, we will be in a better position to prevent crime and work for the goal set by President Macri: to fight drug trafficking. These are complex matters and no country has all tools to address them. Reality shows that these challenges are transnational in nature, which is why we must find a way to work in coordination, based on the understanding that this is sensitive information, and that the treatment given to it is essential. Protocols must be established."
TRADE:
"At no point was a free-trade agreement with the United States discussed. The commencement of negotiations of this nature must be jointly addressed at the MERCOSUR level. This can be a medium or long-term goal, but now we are improving exchange conditions, bringing them closer to conditions that are in line with our priorities and more interesting to us. Improvement will be gradual, but we are not engaged in and have not even begun negotiations on a free-trade agreement."
“The President has spoken clearly: we see Argentina integrated into both the Atlantic and the Pacific. We believe that this two-pronged view goes beyond the geographic boundaries of Latin America, so the first thing we need to do is to begin exchanging proposals between MERCOSUR and the EU and, based on that, to have a serious discussion on the content of the offers. The second goal—which was the subject-matter of conversations between President Macri and President Dilma Rouseff— is to start building a closer bilateral relationship between MERCOSUR and some of the countries of the Pacific Alliance in order to establish closer ties that may lead to full partnership, but this is not going to happen overnight.”
“We are looking for multiple economic partners, but at the same time we must be realistic: the United States is the world’s major superpower and, as such, it has a privileged position in this regard. With the United States, we are specifically working on matters such as energy, investment in infrastructure, state-of-the-art technology and, especially on our part, we are working on trade opening and on the elimination of trade barriers because that will have a more immediate impact. The idea is that this discussion will lead to some initial commitments, so we need to be careful to create opportunities to make these preliminary commitments possible and make sure we take all necessary steps for this to translate into specific investments.”
FILES:
“I do not have information on the documents that are now classified, all I know is that there are documents that were going to be declassified only 50 years after the events, and President Obama, by executive order, has decided to go ahead and declassify them ten years earlier, which is an important gesture as it shows the willingness of the US administration to open up the files and share the information it has”.
JOINT ACTIONS ON REGIONAL MATTERS:
“Our two countries are very interested in supporting the peace process in Colombia. As for Cuba, we are closely following the evolution of this whole process of thawing relations, and we believe that Argentina can also help in that process and we are working in that regard. We believe that one key strength of ours lies in the agri-industry sector; one of Cuba’s big problems is food dependence. We think we can do joint work on that. As for Venezuela, I think there will be a discussion in terms of comparing notes, but I do not think there will be anything in particular in that regard”.
Press release No. 072/16
Press Office: 4819-7375 / 8296 / 7388
@CancilleriaARG
