Argentina hopes to contribute to achieving greater food security in a world that is guided by principles of greater solidarity, said the Argentine Minister of Foreign Affairs, Santiago Cafiero, during his speech at the opening session of the G20 summit (Group of 20 economies more industrialized).
“Argentina wants to be part of the construction of a more supportive world that guarantees food security,” said Cafiero on the Indonesian Island of Bali after having to replace the president, Alberto Fernández, due to a health problem that afflicted the president.
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The goal suggested by the South American country “means ending hunger in the world,” Cafiero emphasized during his speech on food and energy security.
“If that’s what we’re looking for, let’s start by putting an end to the intolerable inequality that economic concentration causes.”
The foreign minister recalled the request made by Alberto Fernańdez during the last Summit of the Americas, held in June in the US city of Los Angeles (southeast), when he proposed “organizing not only food production, but also the development of our enormous energy potential and critical minerals for the ecological transition”.
In the framework of the 17th Summit of G20 leaders, the Argentine diplomat also pointed out that “it is time to demand peace.”
“It will sound naive in the ears of many, but it is very risky for the world that the logic of military escalation is tolerated as a valid way of resolving conflicts,” the foreign minister said.
During his speech, the minister emphasized that “the effects of war affect the entire world” and that in the northern hemisphere “the merchants of death trade lethal weapons, but in the southern hemisphere what ends up killing are poverty and hunger.”
“It is imperative that we join forces so that the parties involved return to the negotiating table,” Cafiero claimed when reading the text that the Argentine president had repaired.
In that sense, “we must assert the strength of multilateralism even though some want to ignore it,” the minister deepened.
“Our peoples need to develop with social justice, in a world that finds peace in diversity.”
The diplomatic chief recalled that “Latin America and the Caribbean faced the worst economic contraction in their history in 2020,” and that now they must “face the effects of the war.”
During his speech, Cafiero also highlighted that the country has the second largest unconventional gas reserve in the world in the province of Neuquén (southwest), thanks to the Vaca Muerta rock formation, and that it is also developing the production of green hydrogen.
Together with Chile and Bolivia, the South American nation is also part of the lithium triangle, “in which more than 60% of the world’s reserves of that mineral are concentrated.”
“It is our duty to build a more just and predictable world, let’s give peace a chance; history is a magnificent teacher that accumulates experiences, but its teaching only transcends when we are able to listen to it,” concluded Cafiero.
The president of Argentina was diagnosed with erosive gastritis with bleeding after an episode of hypotension with dizziness that forced him to suspend his participation in the plenary sessions of the G20 summit.
Once he recovered, the Argentine ruler held a bilateral meeting with the president of China, Xi Jinping, who confirmed an expansion of the financial exchange with his country of US$5 billion.
Alberto Fernández arrived in Bali on November 14, after a flight of more than 16 hours from France, where the president began his international tour to participate in the Paris Forum for Peace, invited by his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron.
The head of state revealed in recent days that he was following a strict diet that had led him to lose several kilos of weight. With his official activities limited, the president will be permanently monitored by the Presidential Medical Unit until he returns to Buenos Aires this Wednesday.
With information from Sputnik