President Alberto Fernandez arrived this Friday in Santo Domingo, the Dominican capital, to participate in the XXVIII Ibero-American Summitin which a busy agenda awaits him and it will be necessary to see if there are new clashes with his Ecuadorian counterpart, Guillermo Lasso, after the escape of a former minister of Rafael Correa from the Argentine embassy in Quito generated a serious democratic conflict.
The head of state arrived in the Dominican Republic late in the afternoon, and seeks to strengthen his international image with the trip, a field where he is doing much better than domestically and which could be crowned next Wednesday, with the postponed bilateral meeting with Joe BidenThe president of United States.
After his arrival in the Caribbean country, Fernández participated in the opening ceremony in Fortaleza Santo Domingo and after the meal offered by Luis Abinader, the host president of a summit that will also have notable absences such as Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silvawho preferred to travel to China with businessmen to recover the economic ties of both countries.
With the climate change In the center of the scene, Fernández will remark that a territorial debate must be opened to face scourges such as the drought that is shaking Argentina and the financial architecture that the region should adopt in the Mercosur exchange with the European Union (EU).
Meetings with Pedro Sánchez and the EU representative Joseph Barrel
Fernández will meet this Saturday with the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sanchezand the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Joseph Barrel.
Then he will give a speech -at 10 in the morning Argentine time- in which he will refer to the damages caused by the drought in sowing, cultivation and livestock, while he will try to impose the debate on a regional financial architecture for address these types of effects generated by climate change.
President Lasso also arrived in Santo Domingo, with whom Fernández met this week due to the escape episode of Rafael Correa’s former minister María de los Ángeles Duarte from the Argentine embassy in Quito. For this situation, the Ecuadorian government directly blames the Argentine ambassador in that country, Gabriel Fuks, who has already left the headquarters after being expelled by the Ecuadorian government.
Although a bilateral meeting is not planned, Fernández and Lasso will meet in the framework of the Summit, and it is awaited if there will be news in the link with that country.
Accompanied by his wife Fabiola YanezThe chancellor santiago cafieroand the spokeswoman Gabriella Cerrutithis time Alberto Fernández chose a small entourage to which only the Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, could join for the meeting with Biden at the White House.
Sources from the presidential environment indicated that for now there are no agreed or scheduled meetings with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). and they are cautious when it comes to confirming the bilateral agreement with the US presidentsince the protocol announcement from the White House has not yet come out.
In any case, and beyond caution, they believe that this time the conditions for the meeting are in place and that the White House will issue the statement this weekend when Biden returns from his trip to Canada.