Alberto Fernández will make his first state visit: on Monday he travels to Chile to meet Sebastián Piñera

Unexpectedly, Chile will become the destination of the first State visit what will he do Alberto Fernandez in his presidency of one year and one month.

The president will be in the neighboring capital next Monday 18 and Tuesday 19 with his colleague Sebastian Piñera, and as the tradition of this type of trip dictates – unlike those that are “official” – will have to visit the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches. In that case, a transfer of the Argentine president to Valparaíso, where the Chilean parliament is raised, is evaluated.

But this is also Fernández’s first trip, in a year in which he has more in mind, at least for the start of 2021: Paraguay, United States, China, among others.

As he could know Clarion From sources from the Casa Rosada, the delegation that will accompany him is still being defined. These are more restricted times in economic and health terms.

Alberto F. will arrive in Chile in another of the difficult moments that that country is going through, which this week will toughen measures to stop another daily increase in coronavirus infections.

There will be four million Chileans who will be confined, in a population of 19 million. And most will also have limited mobility on weekends and holidays, the Health Ministry reported on Monday.

The Chileans chose the Pfizer vaccine to start its vaccination campaign but it only has only 15,000 doses. But they are also the examples that Argentina also uses next to the European mirror to dictate its own restrictions.

Change in relationship

Fernández’s trip to Chile has several edges in his reading. It occurs after the two leaders prepared to start their relationship, which had several short circuits at the beginning of 2020, but that can now be described as “very good”.

For Alberto F. it is also a profitable trip in terms of regional image regarding the relationship he seeks to have with the United States after the inauguration of Joe Biden. Piñera was the president with whom The Democrat spoke first in this region after being elected on November 3.

From the Puebla Group, President Fernández spoke several times last year for socialism to return to Chile, which bothered the Chilean government and was expressed publicly by the latter. But that stopped happening and although it is part, the Argentine president no longer participates in the group’s meetings.

Then came the differences by slides on the wrong compared statistics that the president passed from the presidential team. Alberto F. made several comparisons on the advance of the coronavirus in Argentina and Chile and on the sanitary measures that were several times denials in the trans-Andean country.

In recent times, in addition to talking on the phone and beginning to maintain a more fluid relationship, Fernández sent Chile as ambassador to former Foreign Minister Rafael Bielsa, who worked in this bilateral and in various agreements.

Discussions and business

In the government of Alberto F. they consider that Chile and Argentina can become the bridge between Mercosur and the Pacific Alliance, something that Kirchnerism rejected in the past, but that Albertism does consider now.

Last week, Foreign Minister Felipe Solá received his counterpart from Japan Toshimitsu Motegi, and asked him that since Toyota Tsusho was working in Jujuy on the extraction of lithium, why was it not agreed to manufacture batteries of all kinds in Argentina. In Chile the proposal was seen with good eyes, They imagine a scenario in which that production goes out to the Pacific through Antofagasta.

Among the pending issues are the three Protocols of the Maipú Treaty of 2009 (Agua Negra and Uspallata Tunnels, and Free Circulation), which remain unemployed and without progress. Chile shows no interest in any.

Another is la la delimitation of Ice Fields, which has not yet materialized due to postponements in Chile. Eleven years after it was on the table, the trans-Andean government in May rejected the Argentine delimitation of its continental shelf, claiming rights in a crescent south of the Beagle. In the same area, Argentina wants to use channels for its navigation that Chile does not accept.

But one of the most important agreements in recent months for Argentina was the Bilateral Automotive Agreement. “The entry into force is expected in March 2021 and it is estimated that Argentine automotive exports to Chile will add some 10,000 additional units a year,” said the Foreign Ministry before the end of the year. “Measured in currencies, they could be exported about $ 150 million more per year “, they completed.