Fernández expresses to Macron the “concern” of Latin America about the war in Ukraine

The Argentine president, Alberto Fernández, expressed this Friday to his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, the concern of Latin America about the effects of the war in Ukraine and proposed to see how to guarantee food and energy security in the world.

“I bring the concern of the continent,” the war in Ukraine “is a war action that has generated negative consequences throughout the world and also in our Latin America,” Fernández said in a brief statement to the press together with Macron in Paris.

For the temporary president of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), it is not possible to “continue to put food security and energy security at risk after the pandemic.”

“We have come to make ourselves available to see how we can help from Latin America so that the world can regain peace,” Fernández added before the meeting, along with the president of France, the country that holds the six-month presidency of the European Union.

For his part, Macron advocated “collectively responding to the consequences of this war, especially in agricultural markets,” as he warned “of the risk of a major food crisis, especially in the Middle East and Africa.”

The French president also opted for closer ties between the two regions and for giving new impetus to student exchange, cultural and economic cooperation, as well as the fight against climate change.

“This joint action includes a strong mobilization in favor of the climate emergency and the preservation of biodiversity, an essential point in the structuring of our trade,” he added.

The presidents also exchanged congratulations. The Frenchman congratulated the Argentine on the agreement between his country and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on his debt, and in turn received compliments from Fernández on his recent re-election.

“We talked about it a few days ago with (former Brazilian president Luiz Inácio) Lula (da Silva). We celebrate his electoral success in France, which brought calm, a lot of calm to the world,” said the Argentine president, who brought his counterpart an etching by the artist recently deceased Argentinean Antonio Seguí, who had lived in France since 1963.

The stage in Paris ends Alberto Fernández’s European tour that took him to Spain and Germany. In Madrid, he assured that Spain could be the entry point for the gas that Argentina intends to sell to Europe in the future.

Tjc / bl

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