April 24, 2015
Moscow Kremlin, Federation of Russia

Good afternoon, everyone.

Mr. President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, ministers, workers of the media who are here with us.

First, President, I want to thank the invitation you made to the Argentine Republic in the name of its president to come here to Rusia, as we had invited you to visit us in Argentina and you did it very recently. We also thank the warm welcome of the Russian people.

Today has been a very important day. This year we celebrate the 130th anniversary of the Argentine-Russian/Russian-Argentine relations, traditional in our country. But we do it in a very special way: deepening agreements and signing the Agreement of Strategic Integration today with President Putin, besides the multiplicity of conventions and agreements that different areas have held, e.g. the construction of Chihuido-I, which was signed between Russian and Argentine officials and UTE -the Argentine company that will participate in the this hydroelectric dam.

As correctly stated by President Putin, Russian participation in the electricity generation of Argentina is not new. More than 4,400 megawatts of total Argentine energy, mainly in the hydropower sector, are of Russian origin.

To mention some: the bi-national Salto Grande, together with Uruguay, the second one after Yacyretá, and one of the most important of our country. Also, Central Costanera, Piedra del Águila, Caracoles, Piedra Negra in San Juan, and Bahía Blanca, I think. Minister, is it correct? That is, we have a long tradition between the two countries in the construction of power generation. Chihuido restates that tradition, but today we have taken a deeper, further step by signing the Comprehensive Strategic Agreement.

Today we have signed two important documents referring to the construction of the sixth nuclear plant. It is another more than important step because we would be partnering in nuclear energy, that as I said yesterday at the Business Forum, is poised to become -given the reality of the world, prices and geopolitics- in a cheap, safe energy, not tied to international variables, market and neither geopolitics.

The Russian Federation has a very large expertis on the nuclear issue, and Argentina is in Latin America the country with the largest presence in nuclear energy, and it also signed the Treaty of Tlatelolco (Nuclear Nonproliferation throughout Latin America). We have distinguished expertis, academy, capacity for absolutely peaceful nuclear energy, with medical and energetic purposes.

This step we are taking today by signing the document for this power plant -which we want and hope that in the next meeting in St. Petersburg we can reach a definitive agreement for its construction- means to us, and certainly for Russia, a very important step.

We have also made important agreements on agriculture and livestock farming. In nuclear matter, as well, the Minister and the head of the National Atomic Energy Commission of Argentina and his Russian counterpart signed yesterday two important agreements on cooperation in scientific research and in the provision of uranium-metal, what is vital for Argentina so we can attend the provision of nuclear reactors that we have built and we have sold to Algeria, Egypt and more recently to Australia during the administration of President Kirchner; nuclear reactors for which we also have designed the fuel and that enables us as one of the ten or eleven countries around the world with the capacity to generate, to design, to manufacture, to produce nuclear reactors, nuclear energy.

Also in culture we have signed an important agreement with our dear Minister of Culture. They said the real name and not the artistic one. For us, she is Teresa Parodi, otherwise the Argentines will think I’ve changed the minister. Yesterday we inaugurated a magnificent exhibition of Eva Peron. Eva Peron Museum has moved part of its heritage here, to Moscow, so the Russians know this great woman who no longer belongs only to Argentina but to the Universal History. A stateswoman as defined by President Putin. We are also in a very important year. We also thank the place that you gave us, a very important place, the Russian Historical Museum. It so important that this exhibition of Eva Peron is set on one of the arms of the museum, on the other arm it is being developed -still not opened- the exhibition to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II.

I want to emphasize as a citizen of the world, not as the president of the Argentine Republic but as a universal citizen, the invaluable contribution that the Soviet Army had in the fight and defeat of Nazism and Fascism. I think it’s important that we do this recognition to a nation that lost 27 million lives between soldiers and civilians in the fight against Nazism and Fascism. I know that in May 9 you will celebrate this, we have seen the rehearsals in one of the main streets, and I really want to thank the Russian people the sacrifice that it meant for this town the World War II, all the war’s horror.

We have also discussed with the President, of course, our position, our vision about common problems the world has currently. We reaffirmed once again the need to strictly respect multilateralism embodied in United Nations, United Nations resolutions. We appreciate the support Russia has provided historically in the Malvinas issue, in the accomplishement of the UN resolution, that the UK agrees to sit at a table to discuss the issue of sovereignty over our Malvinas Islands. Also, in the framework of multilateralism, we have supported the UN resolution 2202 dated February 17 this year to address the issue of Ukraine. We believe that the United Nations, diplomacy and politics are the only ways to resolve issues between the countries.

We have also sustained in our statement the strongest condemnation of any type of interference in countries of other countries. This is also very important because often the problems that cross nations, beyond the intrinsic, structural or historical problems that may affect a country or a nation, are distorted, enlarged, magnified, though often caused by the intervention or the interference of third countries. We have condemned this.

Furthermore we appreciate the support that the Russian Federation provides to our country in regard to the fight against vulture funds, against speculative capital that now travels around the world attacking the value of the coins at certain times of the economies, or even worse, as in the case of Argentina, a debt that has already been defaulted is bought with pennies and then they pretend to collect interest exceeding 1,600% in dollars, absolutely unacceptable, totally usurious.

We also thank the support, President, and the work we are developing together with the G-77 + China and other countries in the United Nations, the drafting of an international convention on sovereign debt restructuring. That is today one of the most serious problems for many countries, some of them have debts for once or twice their own GDP and people pay the consequences.

Also keep working, as we have been doing jointly within the G-20 reaffirming the full respect for national sovereignty.

It is a very special day, it was the last part of the intervention of President Putin and I also want to end with that: we decided to work further than putting our signature, as the engineer Galuccio, CEO of YPF, did with his pair of Gazprom, in strategic partnership. You know that Argentina now has the second unconventional gas reserves and fourth of unconventional oil.

I would also like to reaffirm that we have been addressing strategies, lectures and meetings are to be made to agree on instruments that allow us to deepen and increase our trade payment from our own currency. It is very important to every country in the world, not just Argentina, not only Russia, that its own coins are the tools with which to intervene in global trade.

I could go on but I will not bore you, I want to thank again the warmth and hospitality we received by the Russian government, by President Putin, his officials, and warm expressions of affection of the people. Thank you and see you soon.