Came the day.
Alberto Fernández will hold the most important bilateral meeting of his mandate
this Wednesday
.
The President of the United States Joe Biden will receive him in the Oval Room of the White House around 3:45 p.m. from Argentina.
Fernández landed this Tuesday at 4:50 p.m. from New York to a sunny Washington where the newly blossomed cherry trees that characterize the US capital shine.
Close to the President, they were enthusiastic that the meeting with the Democratic leader could collaborate to "
provide a perspective of
economic and political stability" to Argentina and the Government.
He needs it more than ever.
The day before, the
blue dollar
in the city of Buenos Aires set a new record and the financial variants of the US currency rose again while the drought puts pressure on the depressed coffers of the Central Bank.
The rebound of Argentine shares on Wall Street was a relative relief.
Despite the
financial vertigo
, for the President the meeting represents a dose of oxygen and the greatest milestone in his foreign policy.
The meeting, originally scheduled for July 26, was called off because Biden contracted Covid-19.
The rescheduling was delayed and
many in Washington considered it dead
.
It is also a photo reserved only for leaders that not even
Cristina Kirchner
could show off in her 8 years at the helm of the Casa Rosada.
At the
Willard Intercontinental Hotel
, in front of the United States Treasury and a few blocks from the White House, Fernández will review the bilateral agenda with Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero and with Economy Minister Sergio Massa, who arrived this Tuesday in Washington, a city where it has its own weight and connections.
Fernández and Biden will be
hand in hand
to discuss an agenda that the White House has already anticipated through a statement and that includes "cooperation in areas of mutual national interest, including critical minerals, climate change, space and technology."
Ceremonial and protocol officials estimate the meeting will last 90 minutes.
That was the time that Biden dedicated to Lula on February 9.
The Brazilian president - like Macri in 2017 when he visited Trump - stayed at Blair House, the guest house of the US Executive;
a deference that Fernández will not enjoy on this occasion.
President Alberto Fernández greets his American counterpart Joe Biden, this Thursday, at the Summit of the Americas.
The President will take the opportunity to propose to Biden the
support of the United States in the IMF board
so that the organization reviews the surcharges paid by countries like Argentina and which at the Ibero-American Summit in Santo Domingo he described as "
abusive
".
The Argentine president will highlight the need to advance
measures to mitigate the effects of climate change,
not only from an environmental point of view, but also from a financial point of view, as he explained in the Dominican Republic.
The Biden administration also wants to learn about the progress and fight against drug trafficking in Argentina.
China's role in the region is also worrying.
The Casa Rosada has long since definitively aligned itself behind the US and NATO in condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Biden and Fernández, who at the beginning of his administration boasted of being "European" had maintained circumstantial and protocol exchanges at international summits such as the G-20, the G-7 and the Summit of the Americas, in addition to exchanging official letters and telephone calls .
Joe Biden and Alberto Fernández at the G20 summit in Rome.
Once the one-on-one meeting between the two presidents is over, there will be a statement to the press and the two leaders will join the meeting that the Argentine ministers and officials accompanying him will hold in The Cabinet Room together with their US counterparts.
On the Argentine side will be Massa, Cafiero, their respective heads of Cabinet Luciana Vico and Leonardo Macdur;
the Argentine ambassador
Jorge Argüello -main person in charge of the bilateral
-;
the presidential spokesperson Gabriela Cerruti, the Minister of Security Aníbal Fernández, who arrived from Buenos Aires this Tuesday.
On the US side will be Jack Sullivan, Senior National Security Adviser;
Secretary of State Antony Blinken -who on Tuesday had a zoom with Cafiero and the Ukrainian Zelensky-;
the National Security Adviser for Latin America Juan González;
the adviser for the region Christopher Dood;
and the ambassador to Argentina Marc Stanley, who met with his Argentine counterpart to finalize details.
In the national delegation they were excited at the last minute about the presence of Janet Yellen, the US Treasury Secretary, who already received Massa in September.
"For the United States,
Alberto has been a guarantee and a pillar of political stability in the region
," said the President's team.
Among Argentine diplomats they justified Biden's gesture with Fernández at a time of political weakness.
"There would be no meeting between the two presidents if there was no
good harmony between the White House and the Pink House
, whether they like it or not," was the repeated diagnosis of an important Argentine diplomat.
The meeting between Fernández and Biden takes place within the framework of
200 years of diplomatic relations
between the two countries.
The Argentine president will participate in the Democracy Summit that is being held this week.
The Minister of Security and the Minister of Economy will have parallel activity.
Fernández had planned a meeting with the DEA.
Massa, meanwhile, with the head of the IMF Kristalina Georgieva out of Washington, will meet this Wednesday with the number 2 of the organization, Gita Gopinath, to discuss the most urgent agenda.
Sent to Washington