ARGENTINA-US: Clinton Reaffirms ‘Alliance’ with Argentina

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Oct 16 1997 (IPS) - On his first visit ever to Argentina, U.S. President Bill Clinton celebrated the two countries’ strategic alliance Thursday, reaffirmed his support for the Mercosur trade bloc and expressed his confidence in a solution to the Malvinas islands conflict.

On the last leg of his week-long South American tour, Clinton met with President Carlos Menem, opposition leaders and representatives of the Jewish community, including family members of the more than 100 victims of two anti-Semitic bombings.

In his first speech, he said he had asked the U.S. Congress to approve his decision to designate Argentina as a “principal non- member ally” of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), in recognition of the Southern Cone country’s participation in peacekeeping missions throughout the world.

“Our alliance of values goes above and beyond our efforts towards peace and security,” but it starts there, said Clinton, and includes a commitment to “freedom and democracy, and the conviction that open markets are motors for growth.”

The United States is the leading foreign investor in Argentina, with more than eight billion dollars invested in the past six years and some five billion dollars promised for the next five.

But Washington also frequently stresses the need for more transparency in business deals.

Clinton met with Menem and representatives of both governments to reiterate his support for Mercosur (Southern Cone Common Market – Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay) and ask for an acceleration of negotiations towards a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) – as he did in Venezuela and Brazil, the first stops on his tour.

Echoing Brazil, the Argentine government reiterated its aim of consolidating Mercosur as a first step in the strategy of continent-wide integration towards the creation of a combined market of close to 800 million people.

After the meeting, Argentine Foreign Minister Guido Di Tella claimed there were “no discrepancies” with the United States regarding the relationship between the FTAA and Mercosur.

“Argentina will negotiate within Mercosur, not separately,” he stressed, adding that his country was interested in an FTAA, but not as a replacement for the subregional bloc.

He urged the United States to be “realistic” with respect to the complex negotiation process involving 34 countries of the Americas.

Di Tella said Clinton had expressed his desire for a solution to the conflict between Argentina and Great Britain over the Malvinas/Falklands islands, and that the president had offered to intervene if invited by either of the parties to the conflict.

With 10 days to go to Argentina’s Oct. 26 legislative elections, Clinton met with the five leaders of the recently created opposition Alliance of the Radical Civic Union (UCR) and the Front for a Country with Solidarity.

Meeting with Clinton, former president Raul Alfonsin, Senator Graciela Fernandez Meijide, UCR president Rodolfo Terragno, Deputy Carlos Alvarez and Buenos Aires Mayor Fernando de la Rua stressed the problems plaguing Argentina’s legal system.

According to a report prepared by the State Department prior to Clinton’s visit, corruption and the judiciary’s alleged lack of independence – two questions to which the president did not refer in public – would be key items on his agenda in Argentina.

But “neither corruption nor legal insecurity were discussed,” said Di Tella, reporting on the meeting between Clinton and Menem. He did not rule out the possibility of the two presidents tackling the question of “good government,” however, as “one more” important global issue.

Clinton also asked to hear from Jewish organisations, which asked for his help in clarifying the 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy and the 1994 bombing of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association, which left a combined death toll of more than 100.

The leaders of Argentina’s Jewish community – Latin America’s largest – asked for the cooperation of U.S. security and intelligence bodies, and demanded greater efforts against terrorism and the condemnation of countries that provided support for fundamentalist groups. They also complained of the obstacles hindering the investigations, and what they called a “lack of will” in Argentina to resolve the bombings.

Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton, the president’s wife, met with 1,200 women politicians, government functionaries, legislators, religious leaders and heads of trade unions and human rights groups, including the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, who are searching for their grandchildren who ‘disappeared’ during the 1976-83 dictatorship. Hillary described the members of that group as “pioneers” for their humanitarian work.