The Argentine ambassador to the United States, Jorge Arguellomaintained this Thursday that President Alberto Fernández’s speech at the IX Summit of the Americas “It was exactly how we wanted it to be.”
In dialogue with the Argentine journalists accredited at the Summit, Argüello pointed out that “this type of summit has the objective improve the quality and dialogue between all those who participated“.
The ambassador considered that “Fernández, like other Latin American presidents, had a position regarding the exclusion of some countries from the call” and recalled that “some countries chose not to attend, such as Mexico, Bolivia or some Central American country ” while “others had the same position, but decided to attend”.
In that sense, he explained that Argentina “came (to Los Angeles, site of the hemispheric meeting) with the double responsibility of representing the Republic and, also, the CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States), and made the voice of CELAC heard”.
“We believe that at the Summit of the Americas everyone must participate the countries of the region,” insisted Argüello, and underlined that “the President had two options: choose to say what he thought, or remain silent.
“He opted for the former, and it seems to me that it has been a necessary contribution to the dialogue between the United States and the other countries in the region,” he analyzed.
For Arguello, Fernández’s speech will not tarnish bilateral relations with the United Statesas the link status is “excellent and improving,” he assessed.
“I would say that in no way was it a speech against the administration President (Joseph) Biden. I would say that if he has made any criticism, it has been towards the administration of President Donald Trump. This does not affect the relationship, because a bilateral relationship will never be affected if the interlocutors speak clearly and sincerely,” the diplomat remarked.
“On the contrary, I tend to think that the Biden administration values the conceptual clarity of President Fernández. Note that Fernández has invited Biden to participate in the CELAC Summit,” he stressed about the invitation that the head of state made to his American pair for the next meeting of the regional bloc of Latin America and the Caribbean, which will take place on December 1 in the city of Buenos Aires.
“We are living a very rich time in the bilateral relationship. You know that I was ambassador to the United States ten years ago, and I think we are experiencing an excellent moment because there is a lot of exchange and communication,” Argüello said.
“We believe that all the countries of the region should participate in the Summit of the Americas.”Jorge Arguello
And he said that Fernández “has been called last week by President Biden, not to come to the Summit of the Americas, but to deal with the issues that concern both of them, such as the energy crisis, the food crisis and the global agenda“.
Regarding that meeting, to be held in July, he recalled that Biden “told him: ‘President, we are surely going to see each other in Los Angeles, but we are not going to have time to deepen our dialogue, that is why I want to invite you to the White House so that we can discuss the substantive issues on the global agenda'”.
The bilateral meeting with Biden “is confirmed and will be in the last week of July; tentatively, on July 25,” added Argüello, and assured that “the truth marks a milestone in the bilateral relationship.”
Regarding the position of the President to request the resignation of the Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Luis Almagro, in the plenary of the Summit, the ambassador considered that the authorities of that organization “have lost legitimacy, due to different actions.” , and gave as an example “the involvement in the coup d’état a few years ago in Bolivia.”
According to Arguello, “We must strengthen the instances of multilateral dialogue, policies such as the OAS, and credit, such as the IDB (Inter-American Development Bank)” because “the (Donald) Trump administration should never have proposed an American for the presidency of the Bank” .
And on that background, he asked: “Do you know why? Because the founding agreement always respected was that this space was for a Latin American, and President Fernández has expressed the thought of the entire community of countries by demanding the return of the presidency from the IDB to the region”.
