PRESS RELEASE
Argentine President in Moscow Points to ‘A New Economic Order;’ Expected To Sign 20 Cooperation Agreements
April 22, 2015 (EIRNS)—Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s state visit to Russia has already yielded impressive results, in the form of several agreements on cooperation in the field of nuclear energy, oil, gas, and hydroelectric development. When she meets tomorrow with President Vladimir Putin, the two are expected to sign a total of twenty cooperation agreements to further their "comprehensive strategic alliance."
Speaking today at the closing of the Argentine-Russian Business Forum, President Fernández emphasized, in a clear reference to the BRICS, that there is now a "new economic order, a new world geopolitical ordering, which allows us to have a more plural, more diverse, more multipolar world, and which also demands of us a connectivity and much more intense relations." Russia is a very important actor on the political scene, she emphasized, and it is now incumbent on developing nations "to position ourselves to undertake integration projects that are more profound than anything done to date." Strategic associations must be conceived of, "not as clients, sellers or exporters...but see our countries as partners."
Fernández made a point of slamming the austerity regimes applied today in Europe, attacking as "a lie," the notion that austerity creates growth. She also emphasized Argentina’s enormous food-production capability, stating that today her nation has the ability to feed 400 million people, and soon that figure will increase to 600 million. Russia has a great interest in increasing imports of Argentine agriculture products.
Today, officials from Argentina’s National Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding with TVEL, a subsidiary of the state nuclear agency Rosatom, which produces nuclear fuel, to deepen bilateral cooperation, particularly in areas of research and development of nuclear fuel for both research reactors and larger, more powerful ones. TVEL also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the high-tech INVAP company, to expand cooperation between the two companies. Technology transfer is an important aspect of both agreements.
According to Planning Minister Julio De Vido, in a meeting with Rosatom today he expected to receive a Russian offer to build Argentina’s sixth nuclear reactor, with enriched uranium, with a generating capacity of 1,200 MW. According to Sputnik News, De Vido emphasized that Argentina has developed the ability to produce lightly-enriched uranium for its three reactors, but is now "entering the phase of [building] reactors with enriched uranium."
Russia’s Gazprom has already announced it will open offices in Buenos Aires in the next month or two, and on April 23 is expected to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with Argentina’s state oil firm, YPF, to explore the giant Vaca Muerta shale gas/oil reserve in the Patagonia. President Fernández was also to meet with executives of Russian oil firms, Rosneft and Lukoil. A consortium with the participation of Russia’s Inter-RAO-Export has won a tender for the turnkey construction of the Chiuido-I hydroelectric complex, financing for which was discussed by Planning Minister De Vido and Russia’s Development and Foreign Economic Affairs Bank.
