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ARGENTINA | 24-07-2024 18:48

Argentina official Mondino on Malvinas: ‘We’re the owners and they are are tenants'

At an exhibit at the Rotary Club, the Foreign minister left definitions on the political situation and said the role of Argentina in international trade must be furthered. She also left a spicy definition about the islands on the South Atlantic.

Foreign minister Diana Mondino did not mince her words at a visit during the traditional Wednesday lunch at the Rotary Club: she gave impressions on the need to further foreign trade, asking for the progress of deregulation, spoke of the Mercosur-European Union agreement and even ventured to speak of the state of the Javier Milei-Victoria Villaruel relationship. What is more, she assessed the reinstatement of the fourth category of Income Tax. 

In a good mood and on time, the official of the Milei administration arrived at noon on Wednesday at the Hotel Libertador in the centre of Buenos Aires to greet the rotaries and speak before a full house on the first floor of the same venue of the bunker of the libertarian campaign in 2023. Mondino recalled “the good times” in the middle of the campaign when she took the microphone. 

The official does not like reading speeches and tries not to conceal what she is thinking. She ignores the versions always circulating about her distance and on that day she pointed out the need to insert Argentina into international trade, to “make it an exporting power”, but in her view some regulations must end, in order to open up markets.

“We have to change”, was the official’s request, who also gave her opinion on the Mercosur-European Union agreement days away from the bilateral meeting between the President and Emmanuel Macron: “In France they misinterpret” the local agricultural sector, she argued. That is a reason why the understanding between the blocs is delayed, in her view. She did not mince her words, true to the Foreign minister’s style. 

In that context, she said that the relationship with China is posiitive, though she asked to separate the “political” from the economic link and she did not shy away from the Malvinas issue: “we’re the owners and there are tenants, though some people call them squatters”. There was an applause from the auditórium, with several former ambassadors listening to the entire address very closely. 

Mondino, in turn, mentioned she agrees with reinstating the fourth category of Income Tax: “it’s not nice, but it’s the only tax there should be”. The words come at a time when diplomats complain because the levy will once again apply to them, though in this aspect the libertarian leader once again did not want to get involved once she left and was approached by the media about the issue.

She also pointed out that her relationship with Milei is going well now, they are in sync. “He lets me to anything I want, we think alike, I have a liberal concept. It’s a pleasure”, she stated. However, the comings and goings between the head of State and the Vice President are not in a good state and Mondino said so: “They’re very well, it’s an excellent relationship, tough they have their differences, who doesn’t have that in a relationship?”, she wondered.

--TIMES/PERFIL

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