The presidents of Argentina and Chile on Thursday said that ideological differences would not keep them from working closely together.
Argentine President Cristina Fernandez rejected the idea that her leftist politics would prevent a strong working relationship with Chilean President Sebastian Pinera, a right-wing billionaire whose inauguration last month ended 20 years of center-left rule in the country.
“Some people think the fact that a government has a political side different from that of Argentina could affect relations,” Fernandez said as Pinera shared a stage inside the Casa Rosada, Argentina’s presidential palace. “It’s absurd ... I give all Argentines and Chileans my guarantee that that will never happen.”
PHOTO: REUTERS
While Pinera’s political opponents feared a swing to the right in a country still recovering from its long dictatorship, he has quickly presented himself as a post-ideological leader, impatient to work with anyone who can make progress happen.
His delegation includes Chile’s top communist, and in Argentina, he pointedly criticized those who seem to be obsessed with “nostalgia.”
“Countries with tired spirits only speak and remember the past and fear the future. On the other hand, countries with young spirits not only reaffirm their pasts but also have hope, and know that the best thing is to look ahead,” Pinera said. “The best of our bilateral relationship is ahead of us.”
DEEPER RELATIONS
Chile and Argentina need to deepen every aspect of their relationship, he said, forging new economic, commercial, scientific and cultural ties.
“It seems so absurd to me that we spend thousands and thousands of millions of dollars on bridges and tunnels that bring us together, to encounter a customs process that separates us,” he said. “The time we save using bridges and tunnels we lose waiting in line at the border.”
The solution is not just more money, he said, but a change in attitude among officials in both countries.
Fernandez and Pinera’s predecessor, Michelle Bachelet, signed a treaty last year consolidating the countries’ integration plans. At lunch on Thursday, both leaders signed a presidential declaration reaffirming this and other previous treaties, which among other things address the need for improved border crossings and shared public works.
FIRST TOUR
Pinera, on his first foreign tour as president, goes next to Brazil and then New Orleans, where he hopes to bring lessons learned in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina back to his quake-damaged country.
Then, on Monday and Tuesday, he will join 47 other leaders at a White House summit on nuclear non-proliferation, where Chile will likely be praised for secretly surrendering its last weapons-grade uranium to the US last month.
Pinera is expected to support Brazil’s candidacy for a permanent UN Security Council seat and push for the creation of a public-private investment fund for infrastructure projects in Chile and Brazil, international adviser to the Chilean defense ministry Carlos Maldonados Prieta said.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS