While condemning Russia's aggression, Argentina, like the rest of the Latin American region, he doesn't think he wants to send weapons to Ukraine. The president of Argentina said, Alberto Fernandez, in the press conference following the meeting with the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz. "We have always supported European policy" hoping for an end "as soon as possible" of hostilities, said Fernandez, however, pointing out that "Argentina and Latin America are not thinking of sending arms either to Ukraine or to any other country where there are conflicts”. However, Russia must "understand what damage it is causing to the whole world" with its invasion, added the president, reporting the "concern" shared with Scholz during the private conversation. In recent days, the president of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, had also ruled out the possibility of sending arms to Ukraine.
Fernandez and Scholz, engaged in a mission that today takes him to Chile and later to Brazil, also talked about economic cooperation, with a particular focus on energy issues. In Berlin, Scholz said, he is interested in talking about “plants for hydroelectric energy, how to exploit solar energy, as well as LPG or how to extract lithium. Everything is important to us, with a view to mutual benefit", said the chancellor, identifying "many investments for the future" and claiming that the German economy has an interest in becoming "strategic" in Argentina. Specifically, Fernandez revealed, there was talk of Vaca Muerta, the world's second reserve of unconventional gas, lithium and the production of green hydrogen. “These are all energies that are of interest to Europe and Germany”, and it is “important for us to attract investments to enhance them”, he added.
The two also took up the issue of the free trade agreement between the European Union and Mercosur (the commercial integration area which also includes Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay). "We agree in wanting to deepen bilateral trade relations, and in this perspective the agreement has a special importance", said Scholz speaking of the need for "a constructive approach" to ratify the document. With Lula's arrival as president of Brazil, Fernandez said, "Mercosur is in better conditions to be able to negotiate with Europe." Part of the resistance opposed to the ratification is linked to the criticisms that the German MEPs have addressed to the environmental policies of the former president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro. The text signed by Bolsonaro and the former Argentine president, Mauricio Macri, "did not take into account the enormous differences and asymmetries within Mercosur", added Fernandez, also hoping for the modification of "European policies that make it difficult for products and of farms” in the Old Continent.
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