President Alberto Fernández concludes his international tour with a visit to Barbados after passing through Russia and China, where it signed substantial agreements aimed at building mutual trust and strengthening tradewhich include the commitment to invest millions and exchange in terms of infrastructure, technology and knowledge, in a line that reaffirms the “multilateralist vision” of the Government’s foreign policy.
From different sectors and participants of Fernández’s first trip abroad this year, the “importance” of the tour was highlighted due to its results.
For Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero, the trip responds to “a realistic foreign policy”which “defends the interests of Argentines” and aims to “advance macroeconomic stabilization and improve export capacity” while Eduardo Valdés, president of the Deputies’ Committee on Foreign Relations, considered that “there is no ideology” but ” decision of these great countries of the world to share this time with Argentina”.
In Russia, the first leg of the presidential journey, a country with which the Argentina maintained a commercial exchange of 1,331 million dollars last year, higher by 71% compared to 2020, FErnández pointed out that he asked his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin that the strategic agreement that was signed in 2015 “be launched with all vigor” so that “it becomes an effective reality”.
As balance of the conversations, Putin committed Russian investments in the electricity, gas, oil, chemical industry and banking collaboration sectors, and highlighted the participation of Russian companies in the modernization of railways in Argentina for the supply of electric trains.
Precisely, the rate of growth of the exchange during the past year was highlighted by the Russian president, for whom the aspiration is “to strengthen our close mutually beneficial cooperation and seek new areas of interaction”.
Thus, among other specific initiatives, both presidents evaluated new projects in the area of transportation in Argentina. These could include investments for the Vaca Muerta-Bahía Blanca train and the possible establishment of the Kamaz company, a Russian company dedicated to the manufacture of trucks that Fernández wants to be installed, (“but not to assemble, but to manufacture,” said ), produce and generate employment in the country.
A separate and central chapter in the dialogue fell on the cooperation between the two countries due to the coronavirus pandemic and the early provision of Russian Sputnik V vaccines to Argentina, which became the first country in Latin America to register it, which opened the doors upon arrival in other countries of the region, and which deserved mutual thanks among the presidents.
Fernández and Putin also addressed the role of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the finances of the countries, and on this aspect, the Argentine president said that his Russian counterpart stressed that the agreement “was very important to advance” in Argentina, but that both shared “a very critical look” on the functioning of the organism.
Fernández also defended in Russia his view that Argentina has to “have relations with everyone” in order to “expand opportunities for cooperation and investment and gain more autonomy as a country,” and explained that when he pointed out that Argentina “was always very dependent on the United States and the IMF”, this was “barely a description of reality”.
Along these lines, in China, on his second leg of the trip, Fernández managed to close a positive investment and economic cooperation agreement, which will expand the volume of bilateral trade, and became the first of the three large countries in the region to formalize its entry into the so-called “Silk Road”.
This latest initiative is a development plan based on a conglomerate of infrastructure projects by land and by sea, conceived on a continental scale, and which the national government is evaluating as a “strategic decision”, within the framework of which different agreements will be signed that guarantee financing for investments and works for more than 23,700 million dollars.
As specified, This financing will be obtained in two tranches: one already approved for 14 billion dollars under the mechanism of the Strategic Dialogue for Economic Cooperation and Coordination (DECCE) and another for approximately 9.7 billion dollars, which Argentina will present in the Ad Group. Hoc created between both countries to start the work, after joining the Strip and the Silk Road to which 140 countries have already joined, with the exception of Mexico and Brazil in America.
In addition to adherence to the Silk Road, thirteen cooperation documents were signed, referring to green development, digital economy, space area, technology and innovation, education and university cooperation, agriculture, earth sciences, public media and nuclear energy.
These agreements will deepen the fulfillment of the goals of financing infrastructure works; increased participation of Argentine supplier companies in these works and of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in strategic Argentine sectors, such as energy and electromobility, among others.
In this way, it aims to increase bilateral trade, which last year reached a historical record with 19,685 million dollars, which represents a growth of 41.6% year-on-year, according to figures from the Argentine Chamber of Commerce (CAC). ).
In 2021, Argentina’s exports to China were 6,160 million dollars, which marked an increase of 17% year-on-year. Among the main exported products were soybeans (31.6% of the total) and boneless beef (23.7%).
As a result of Fernández’s conversations with the Chinese Prime Minister, Xi Jinping, the leader of that country gave signs that they are willing to study projects to channel Special Drawing Rights from the IMF. and expansion of its use, an important issue for Argentine reserves. They also expressed the need for the agency to review its surcharge policy, an issue on which the Argentine president has insisted in international forums.
In the joint declaration, 22 points on which there was understanding were detailed, all linked to the importance of bilateral relations in the framework of the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations.
To illustrate the importance of the visit to the Asian giant, the Argentine ambassador to China, Sabino Vaca Narvaja, predicted that “in three or four years” that country “will be Argentina’s first trading partner and will displace Brazil”, and described Beijing’s support for Argentina’s position before the International Monetary Fund as “forceful”. IMF).
“We have a vision of multilateralism and we do not believe in alignments, it is a position that has always expressed the third position of Peronism,” recalled the diplomat in response to those who watched the presidential tour with suspicion.
