Argentine President Alberto Fernandez will tour Europe, as his country seeks a new deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and will meet Pope Francis at the Vatican.
Read also: Covid-19: Argentina keeps breaking death records
Argentina, which received $ 44 billion from the IMF as part of a $ 57 billion financing program signed in 2018 by ex-President Mauricio Macri (2015-2019), is seeking a new deal whereas it must honor its first deadlines this year. The South American country, in recession since 2018, must also settle a debt of 2.4 billion dollars with the Paris club. At the end of March, Alberto Fernandez affirmed that
"the debt which we have inherited, in the terms which govern it, is irremediable"
.
The Minister of the Economy, Martin Guzman, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Felipe Sola, and the First Lady, Fabiola Yanez, will notably be part of the delegation which is expected Sunday in Portugal by President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
On Monday afternoon, the center-left president will fly to Spain to meet King Felipe VI and Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.
Meeting with Emmanuel Macron
Alberto Fernandez will be received Wednesday in Paris by Emmanuel Macron after a meeting in the morning with the business world.
On Thursday, he will go to the Vatican to be received by Pope Francis, Argentinian like him, and to exchange with Italian President Sergio Mattarella and Prime Minister Mario Draghi before returning to Buenos Aires on Friday.
