From Munich
Under the harsh sun of the first days of the European summer, President Alberto Fernández landed this Sunday in Munich, where, prior to the meeting of G7 leaders, he held a relevant bilateral meeting with the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi. He spoke there about the trade in food and, above all, about India’s decision to support Argentina’s entry into the Brics, a bloc of developing countries. That possibility was opened up in May when there was another meeting between officials in New Delhi.
The meeting, which took place in a room at the Hotel Bayerischer Hof, was attended by all the officials of the delegation and the head of the House of Representatives, Sergio Massa. Upon leaving the meeting, Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero stated that “there are more and more Argentine products that are installed in India, especially sunflower oil and soybean meal.” In this sense, the Government hopes that the historical numbers of commercial exchange between the two countries will be broken again this year. In terms of trade volume, Argentina’s main partner is China, followed by Brazil, China, the United States and then India.
Late this Sunday, the President participated in the welcome activity for the 6 non-member countries invited to the G7 (India, Ukraine, South Africa, Indonesia, Senegal and Argentina), an event that took place at the Cuvilliés Theater in Munich Residenz. And in the evening it was part of the dinner offered by the Minister President of Bavaria, Markus Söder. Bavaria is the region where the summit takes place.
Summit and bilateral with Europeans
The strong agenda of the summit will begin this Monday, with two speeches by President Fernández at the leaders’ meeting, plus a bunch of bilateral meetings with other of his peers. It is worth mentioning that Fernández was invited to the summit as president of CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States), which is why he will maintain a double dynamic: talk about the country hand in hand and more structural issues in the region at the summit. usually.
Thus, after meeting with the Indian Modi, while the summit is taking place at the Elmau Palace -an enclave near the Alps and 100 kilometers from Munich-, Fernández will meet with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson; with the head of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen and German Foreign Minister Olaf Scholtz, who was in charge of inviting Argentina months ago. In addition, he will hold meetings with the Italian premier Mario Draghi; with the head of the European Council Charles Michel; and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. Likewise, in a room to be confirmed and while the closing dinner of the summit is being held, he will hold bilateral meetings with leaders from South Africa and Senegal.
The castle and the mega security
This Monday’s agenda will start very early, with the president traveling by helicopter to the Elmau Palace at 6 AM. Although his agenda starts around noon, Munich is a city collapsed by the police who are willing to avoid overflows and protests against the summit. In fact, due to the number of checkpoints that are expected on the route to the palace, it is speculated that the journey by route could take up to two hours. In the previous one, there were isolated demonstrations and other harsher ones, in which eight police vans were set on fire.
The Elmau is a castle that in the Nazi era was used as a retirement site and then, when the Second War ended, it was used as a tuberculosis hospital. It is not the first time that the G7 has been held there, and Fernández’s presence on Monday will have several clear axes. In the first place, a request for the world powers to understand that the conflict between Russia and Ukraine is hitting globally and putting the weakest economies in trouble; and, in parallel, think of a world engineering centered on greater financing for developing countries, via DEGS or other mechanisms.