The minister of Foreign Affairs Omar Paganini He met with his Argentine counterpart, Diana Mondino, within the framework of the Summit of Mercosur Foreign Ministers which takes place in Paraguay. This is the first meeting between officials of the governments of Uruguay and Argentina after the assumption of Javier Milei in the neighboring country, where the president attended Luis Lacalle Pou.
Prior to the meeting of foreign ministers that began today at 9 at the Benigno López Palacein the Paraguayan capital of Assumption, Paganini held a bilateral audience with Mondino, in which they discussed the main issues of the regional and bilateral agenda, as reported by the Foreign Ministry.
While the Mercosur-EU agreement is one of the axes of the plenary session of all the foreign ministers—in addition to Paganini and Mondino, they participated Ruben Ramirez Lezcano from Paraguay; Mauro Vieira of Brazil; and Celinda Sosa of Bolivia—, At the bilateral meeting, both the existence of broad possibilities for cooperation in different areas and the intention to promote the completion of new projects “that allow the development of complementarities and synergies between both economies” were highlighted.
The deepening of trade between both countries was also a key issue among the diplomatic delegations; as well as the idea of building a Mercosur more dynamic, in line with the policy promoted by the Lacalle Pou government in terms of regional integration.
Navigation and, in particular, dredging to deepen the access channel to Port of Montevideo, was also on the discussion table; and it was agreed to advance in the respective areas “in order to conclude as soon as possible the pending issues to specify the proposed projects and future developments in order to improve navigation and logistics, key elements for regional competitiveness.”
Finally, Paganini and Mondino agreed to coordinate a new meeting of the Bilateral Commission to continue deepening and improving relations between both countries, within the framework of the new Argentine government.
They approved the placement of the new Argentine ambassador in Uruguay
Besides, Ambit could confirm that Chancellery approved the placet of Martín García Moritán, the brand new Argentine ambassador in Uruguay, whose designation was announced weeks ago by the government of the neighboring country.
He is a career diplomat and his appointment was well regarded in the country after the fulfillment of the outgoing mission. Alberto Iribarne. García Moritán was born on March 12, 1955 and is a lawyer by Buenos Aires’ University (UBA),
In his resume, he claims to have performed duties before the Vatican, Brazil, Boliviathe United Nations Organization (UN)among various other charges.
Key meeting for the Mercosur-EU agreement
As explained in advance by the Argentine Foreign Ministry, the Mercosur-EU agreement It was one of the axes of the plenary session of the bloc’s foreign ministers. In that sense, advancing in internal negotiations is one of the objectives with which Mondino traveled to Paraguay, in order to provide a legal framework for the trade of goods with Europe that allows dynamizing the integration.
This also happens in a context in which Argentina has already announced that it is willing to put aside its claims regarding the environmental requirements included in the annex to the document in 2019 in order to sign the agreement once and for all—in a posture of impatience similar to that of Uruguay, although the government has not yet made public its opinion regarding abandoning the conditions proposed for the last more than four years—; and in which, therefore, from Europe they regained a certain optimism to close 25 years of negotiations.
In that sense, the Secretary of Commerce of Spain, Xiana Méndez, assured that the position of the Mercosur —or, at least, for now, Argentina— regarding the agreement with the EU is “very constructive” in order to close the last points of disagreement in the strategic association treaty.
Source: Ambito
