Argentina interested in strong ties with Russia but may revise some agreements

BUENOS AIRES, December 18. /TASS/. Argentina is interested in keeping up strong ties with Russia but it admits of a possible revision of some bilateral agreements signed by the administration of former President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, Foreign Minister Susana Malcorra told a news conference on Thursday. "Russia has interest in maintaining strong relations and Argentine President (Mauricio) Macri is also interested in them," she said, adding Macri said in a telephone conversation with Vladimir Putin there were sectors where the two countries could increase cooperation, for instance, in the sphere of foodstuffs. Along with it, she admitted that the new Argentine authorities had not had enough time yet to scrutinize the agreements De Kirchner’s administration had signed with Moscow and Beijing. The Macri government had informed both China and Russia it was going to study these interstate documents. "If some provisions cause our concern, then we will sit down at the conference table so as to bring them to conformity with the mature principles that we think these agreements should stand in line with them," Malcorra said. When a reporter asked her what specifically the new government could be dissatisfied with, she said it did not have any precisely focuses suspicions. At the same time, Malcorra stressed the government’s interest in energy sector agreements, saying: "This is a sphere where we’re eager to develop but we’d like to see whether or not the forms of these agreements fall in line with the strategic plan Argentina has mapped out." In this connection, she underlined this country’s plans to develop renewable sources of energy. Russia and Argentina signed about twenty agreements in April 2015, including a memorandum on construction of a nuclear generating unit on the Argentine territory. Besides, Putin and De Kirchner signed a joint statement on a comprehensive strategic partnership between their nations. Argentina signed a similar agreement with China in 2014. It was accompanied by the signing of nineteen documents on cooperation totaling $ 7.5 billion. At the talks on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Antalya, Turkey, the Argentine and Chinese leaders agreed to build two nuclear power generating units worth $ 15 billion. Read more