South Americans want Putin by their side

Argentina asked Russian President to attend to Mercosur annual summit in November, where he would also meet Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay leaders.
As PRAVDA.Ru wrote earlier this week, Argentine Foreign Minister, Rafael Bielsa, delivered to Russian President Vladimir Putin a formal invitation to attend to the Russo - Mercosur summit scheduled for November 20. By that time, Putin is expected to visit Chile for  the Asian – Pacific Economic Council (APEC) forum in Santiago. A stop by Brazil is also in Putin’s trip.

Argentine press confirm the information on Friday quoting local Foreign Ministry sources. In Moscow, where Bielsa is paying an official visit to boost poor trade records and strengthen bilateral political ties, Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov promised to think over the Argentine proposals and inform President Putin about them.

There, the sides issued a joint statement on political dialogue and cooperation to solve a number of important global problems. Among them are multilateral cooperation on international security, including new challenges and threats, the fight against international terrorism, drug trafficking and organized crime and interaction in economic, financial, investment, technological and scientific-technical spheres.

During a teleconference from Moscow, Mr. Bielsa confirmed relations between both countries are in a good moment, as said the meeting between both leaders could be any time between the 22nd and the 24th of November.

As talks on free trade negotiations with the US and the European Union have been frozen for months, Mercosur countries with Brazil and Argentina at the head, are speeding up contacts with what they think will be the super-powers of the future: China, India and Russia. They are also planning to boost trade with other potential partners as South Africa, Egypt, Algeria and Morocco through cooperation agreements.

Hernan Etchaleco