The relationship between the Argentine president, Alberto Fernandezand the Uruguayan, Luis Lacalle Pouwas increasing the rispides this last year with episodes such as its crossing into Mercosur due to the intentions of the Uruguay to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement or the sayings of the president of the neighboring country regarding the water crisis in the country.
This Wednesday the president arrived from Brussels where he participated in the summit between the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac) and the European Union (EU), place where the Argentine president was also present. Upon arriving in the country, Lacalle Pou was consulted by the press about how the relationship with Fernández had turned out, to which the president replied that “they made some joke”.
“The time ahead of us presents us with many challenges and gives us opportunities. The great challenge is climate change, it has already been seen. We live it in the drought, Uruguay lives it. In Montevideo they open the faucets and the water does not come out”, were the statements of the Argentine president last week that caused the discomfort of Lacalle Pou.
Faced with this, the reactions of the ruling party were not long in coming and even the president himself declared that Fernández’s statements “could be for two reasons”, bad intentionalthough he remarked that he ruled it out or out of ignorance and remarked that if his Argentine counterpart wants to obtain the correct information You just have to look on the internet.
On the other hand, he remarked that he had a conversation with the Argentine ambassador In uruguay, Alberto Iribarne, with whom he has a very good relationship, and clarified that the foreign minister spoke with the Argentine president to explain the real situation facing the country.
The crossing in the Mercosur
At the beginning of December of last year, during a Mercosur meeting, Lacalle Pou gave a speech where he proposed that the conglomerate of countries open up to the world since it was not fair for Uruguay to the rules are so restrictive regarding foreign trade.
Faced with this, the Argentine president wanted to put the president on the sidelines by establishing that “the Mercosur rules say that these agreements must have another treatment mechanism,” referring to the Trans-Pacific Agreement that Uruguay intends to join.
“One of the conditions in a society is to comply with the rules. When you play football you have to respect them. The two cannot catch the ball with their hands”, ironized the Argentine president regarding the demands of Lacalle Pou.
In response, the Uruguayan president proposed that in the next summits there be a “freer debate” so that the round trip “is more entertaining”, and, using Fernández’s metaphor, Lacalle Pou assured that he would like to “see the VAR of who has not complied with the rules in Mercosur”.
Source: Ambito
