Tuesday, January 10, 2023 | 6:18 p.m.
Argentina and Japan advanced this Tuesday towards the objective of converting the bilateral relationship “into a global strategic association”, during two meetings that the president, Alberto Fernández and the foreign minister Santiago Cafiero held with the Japanese Foreign Minister, Yoshimasa Hayashi, in which also discussed the expansion of trade, investment promotion and cooperation opportunities in energy, mining, science and technology.
Fernández received Hayashi -who is on an official visit in Buenos Aires- at the Government House, within the framework of 125 years of “close diplomatic relations with Japan”, according to the national president.
“We are taking a further step in the diplomatic relationship: it means the possibility of expanding bilateral trade, of US$ 1,862 million in 2021, strengthening the bilateral agenda on trade, economic and financial issues and greater coordination in multilateral organizations,” Fernández wrote in your Twitter account.
Within the framework of 125 years of close diplomatic relations with Japan 🇯🇵, I met with Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi (@hayashi09615064).
We will continue advancing to turn the Strategic Relationship into a Global Strategic Association ⬇ï¸Â pic.twitter.com/iyQb4f62Xz
– Alberto Fernandez (@alferdez) January 10, 2023
Prior to the meeting with the Japanese minister – who arrived in Argentina as part of a tour that included other countries in the region – the Government had announced that it was studying the possibility of converting the relationship it has with the Asian nation to transform it into a “strategic partnership”.
This was stated on Tuesday by Foreign Minister Cafiero himself, who in a statement he offered to the press after the meeting in the presidential office, stated that the initiative “is to convert the strategic relationship into a global strategic association as one more step, and in that we engaged with Chancellor Hayashi.”
In this regard, he explained that this status in the bilateral relationship “will bring possibilities for greater investment, greater ties and, above all, coordination in multilateral organizations,” where both countries could coordinate common positions around central issues on the agenda. global.
On this last point, he maintained that “part of what is the global agenda, that this world of uncertainty is throwing, and where with Japan we are united by views, fundamentally of coordination regarding the treaties on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, the links that we have, from the scientific and technological point of view, the aerospace industry, the nuclear technology industry for peaceful purposes and also the development that we have in Antarctica”.
Cafiero also highlighted that the exchange of goods between Argentina and Japan experienced a “recovery of pre-pandemic reciprocal trade levels: some 1.7 billion dollars in 2022, almost 2 billion if we add services, with which we will advance in economic and financial issues “.
The Argentine foreign minister highlighted the importance of the bilateral link in “scientific and technological, the aerospace industry, the nuclear technology industry for peaceful purposes and also the development we have in Antarctica”, and highlighted the presence of the Toyota automotive company in the country .
In this regard, he pointed out that the Japanese capital company “is carrying out its third shift and that speaks clearly of the potential it has found and of the development in our country, and above all of the potential we have because 70% of the production is exported approximately from what the plant in Zárate does”.
He also indicated the relevance that the relationship with Japan has for the country by virtue of “the chair it occupies in the International Monetary Fund and multilateral credit organizations, where Argentina still has current programs as well as the Paris Club” for which -he said- “it is important that the Japanese official take an overview of the recovery of the Argentine economy.”
After the meeting at Casa Rosada, the foreign minister received Hayashi at the San Martín Palace, where they had an extensive working meeting in which progress was made in different areas of the bilateral agenda.
The ministers were “satisfied” with the advances in cooperation between the two nations and analyzed the regional situation in Latin America and Asia, as well as the main global issues and multilateral issues, especially in the United Nations sphere.
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