Joe Biden's envoy, who will be in Argentina this Thursday the 13th and Friday the 14th to continue the agenda items agreed upon in the recent meeting between Alberto Fernández and the President of the United States, decided to meet first with Sergio
Massa
.
Both will be seen in the Dominican Republic, this Wednesday.
Wendy Sherman
, number two of the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, a veteran diplomat in direct contact with the US president, will have dinner with Massa and his small entourage, in the capital of Santo Domingo, this Wednesday.
He wants to listen to the Minister of Economy, Agriculture and Production and follow up on issues of interest to the United States and Argentina in bilateral and international matters.
Massa participated in Alberto Fernández's trip to the meeting with Biden on March 29.
But he extended his stay to follow his specific issues with Washington -an agenda of his own that he has- on the progress of the country, the economy, the debt, the crisis and the relationship with international organizations.
Beyond the agenda with the IMF on its program regarding the rescheduling of debt payment, Argentina is in urgent need of fresh currency income to face the collapse of its agro-industrial exports -US$15,000 and US$ s20,000 million- being Washington the one that has a fundamental role due to its influence in the credit organizations.
After his trip to Washington for the visit that Alberto Fernández made to Joe Biden, some US$ 3 billion are expected from the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank and the Andean Development Corporation.
Sherman will be with President Fernández only the next day, in Buenos Aires.
He will also see Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero.
Although the relationship between the President and Massa is not at a good moment, the fact that the interview between Sherman and the minister is in the Dominican Republic, on the one hand, marks the interest of the United States in rigorously following that agenda established with Argentina and, on the other, On the other hand,
the role assigned to Massa, who has his own strong link with the United States.
In addition, as this newspaper has been able to learn, in the United States they are already attentive with some degree of concern to the electoral process in Argentina, and to the deep crises that the pro-government (Frente de Todos) and opposition (Together for Change) coalitions are going through. and the emergence of any type of political phenomenon that destabilizes local democracy
.
Massa was not going to be at Sherman's visit on Thursday because he will be in the United States until Saturday the 15th, to participate in the Spring Assembly of the IMF and the World Bank.
It was in this context that, taking advantage of the tour of the State Department official to the Dominican Republic, whose president Luis Abinader is a friend of Massa, that the meeting between the two was agreed.
Sherman is traveling with
Ricardo Zúñiga
, Under Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs at the Department of State and Special Envoy for the Northern Triangle.
Massa will only travel with his chief advisor, Leonardo Madcur;
the Undersecretary for Latin America and the Caribbean, Gustavo Martínez Pandiani and Santiago García Vázquez, Director of Communications of the Ministry of Economy.
In addition to the bridge sheet that was discussed with Biden, and the need for Argentine requests to international organizations, the Government has been asking the Americans that Argentina once again be incorporated into the Generalized System of Preferences (SGP), a status that it lost in 2020, and that finds the country with a significant drop in exports to that market.
Presidents Alberto Fernández and Joe Biden, at the White House, on March 29.
At the extended table are the ministers, including Sergio Massa and Santiago Cafiero
On the other hand, the access of certain raw materials to that market from countries that only have free trade agreements with the US is contemplated. Cafiero and Massa also spoke about this with the US senators who visited the country last week.
For the case, there in all these issues the power of pressure that Argentina also has begins to play.
If the United States does not help, they say,
China enters with its power of accessible credits, without too many requirements and without too many obstacles.
In the Government they deny that agreements with China have been stopped
, and many of those that are paralyzed have to do with the lack of local enthusiasm, or the lack of money to advance joint projects, such as the issue of a nuclear power plant.
Others, such as the investment that Beijing sought to make in a Logistics Pole in Ushuaia or the sale of war planes, are material for evaluation due to the strong pressure exerted against them by the United States.
The situation in Brazil today also plays against this backdrop.
It happens that certain movements of Lula da Silva that disturbed Washington, Clarín learned.
His trip to China in full tension for Taiwan.
And that, in addition, for that trip, he has made Ursula von der Leyen, the number one in the European Union, suspend her tour of Brazil and Argentina.
On the other hand,
the visit to Brasilia in the middle of the month also by Sergei Lavrov
, Vladimir Putin's foreign minister, set off his alarms.
Lula has a critical position on the attitude of Volodimir Zelenski, who does not risk having the Argentine government.
This stance brought the PT leader closer to the Sino-Russian alliance.
And Argentina was on the side of the United States.
Also on April 16 and 18,
the head of the southern command of the United States, Laura Richardson,
who, unlike the State Department diplomats, is the one who, as this newspaper has already recounted, has been exposing the issues of American concern, regarding the Chinese presence in strategic sectors, not only military and technological, but also regarding the resources of the future such as minerals and lithium.
This is the second time he has visited the country and, as he did on his last trip, he arranged a meeting with Vice President Cristina Kirchner, whose power gravitates in the middle of the internal stronghold between the ruling coalition, the Frente de Todos, and that of the opposition in Together for Change.
An issue that is already being watched with interest and some degree of concern in Washington.
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