Argentina’s President Alberto Fernández is in Barbados for discussions with Prime Minister Mia Mottley on deepening bilateral relations as well as matters of mutual interest, including climate change, gender equality, and regional cooperation.
Fernandez and his entourage arrived at the Grantley Adams International Airport just after 3 p.m. on Monday to a red carpet welcome, and were greeted by Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, and Senior Minister coordinating for all Social and Environmental Policy, Senator, Dr The Most Honourable Jerome Walcott.
His visit follows on from his tour to China on Saturday and Russia where he met with President Vladimir Putin last Thursday.
During his 24-hour working visit to Bridgetown the Argentina President, who is also visiting in his role as Chairman of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), is expected to see first-hand some of the measures Barbados has implemented to address climate change. In addition to talks with Prime Minister Mottley, he will also meet with several Government ministers and officials.
Director of Caribbean Affairs with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Argentina Gustavo Pandiani told Barbados TODAY the trip was simply an effort to foster greater unity between Buenos Aires and Bridgetown.
Dismissing any notion that the highly-indebted Argentina, which is also engaged in an International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme, was trying to drum up support for its own purposes, Pandiani said: “We go to the big guys and we also come to Barbados because we consider you a very important player in the system of Central America, Latin America and the Caribbean.”
“There is nothing greater than our unity . . . . We don’t want to impose a way of life or a way of political organisation,” added Pandiani, as he indicated that it was important for each country to learn from the other.
He said CELAC, an intergovernmental mechanism that was established in Venezuela in 2011 to bring together all 33 Latin American and Caribbean states for dialogue and political agreement on regional matters, respected the political diversity within the region.
“We have governments on the right side and the left side and everybody has to be ready to lead with each other. That is what we want – dialogue, peace, consultation, and to find solutions when we have differences without imposing,” said Pandiani, the immediate past Argentina Ambassador to Barbados.
He added that it was important that CELAC engage partners outside the region as it seeks to tackle issues of common interest.
“In foreign affairs, you are not always looking for something in particular, you are just looking for a good relationship with different countries. If our organisation works fine it will for us and it will for you. It is a win-win situation. It is not that I have to take something away from you to have more. It is something we need to do together. The main objective is unity. We are stronger if we are united,” Pandiani told Barbados TODAY.
“Why we do it [is] because we need to be together to be stronger. So, let’s say when we have to negotiate a trade agreement with China or trade agreement with the US or with the European Union, if we do it together as a whole organisation with more markets, more consumers, more territories, with more everything, we will be in a better position to negotiate. So we need to keep as together as possible in order to be stronger when we talk outside of our own region,” he further explained.
Pandiani gave the assurance that President Fernández’s visit would be followed up, adding that as CELAC chairman he had several plans for the region this year, with several commitments already lined up.
Fernández’s chairmanship of CELAC will conclude by the end of 2022, and Pandiani said Argentina and Mexico have already indicated they will support St Vincent and the Grenadines’ bid for the chairmanship in 2023.
While here, Fernández, whose country has been in a decades-long sovereignty dispute with the United Kingdom over the Falkland Islands, is also expected to discuss matters relating to decolonization with Prime Minister Mottley.
He is also scheduled to have meetings with at least six of the nine leaders of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) – St Lucia, St Kitts and Nevis, Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada.
marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb
