Economy and health to be discussed by Chilean president during visit to Uruguay

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The President of Chile, Sebastián Piñera, will pay an official visit to Uruguay on Monday (27), in which economy and health will be the main focus of the conversations that the Chilean delegation will hold with its interlocutors.

According to Efe news agency, the Chilean president arrived in Montevideo Sunday night (around 01.00 GMT on Monday), coming from Cartagena de Indias (Colombia), the starting point of a three-country tour that will conclude Tuesday in Paraguay.

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Piñera will be received on Monday around 11.00 AM (14.00 GMT) at the presidential residence by his counterpart, Luis Lacalle Pou, sources from the Presidency and the Uruguayan Foreign Ministry confirmed.

After the meeting, which will also be attended by the foreign ministers of Chile and Uruguay, Andres Allamand and Francisco Bustillo, all will have lunch at the residence.

the head of the Uruguayan foreign service commented this Friday, upon his return from New York, where he accompanied Lacalle to the United Nations General Assembly, that there he had the opportunity to discuss with his Chilean colleague about the “new opportunity that Uruguay has” in “matters of international integration”.

Uruguay announced weeks ago that it would carry out a pre-feasibility study with China to evaluate the possible signing of a Free Trade Agreement (FTA), something that clashes with the official position of the Southern Common Market (Mercosur), which does not allow its member countries to negotiate trade agreements outside the bloc.

The relaxation of the rules governing Mercosur sought by two of its members (Uruguay and Brazil) will surely be one of the issues on the table at the meeting with the delegation from Chile, a member of the Pacific Alliance and the Forum for the Progress of South America (Prosur).

After this meeting, Piñera will go to the Parliament, where he will be received by the Vice President and president of the General Assembly, Beatriz Argimón, according to sources from the Legislature.

Together with the economic recovery after the global stoppage caused by Covid-19, the management of the pandemic will be another of the issues on the agenda of the Chilean president in Uruguay.

The Ministers of Health of both countries, Chile’s Enrique Paris and Uruguay’s Daniel Salinas will sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU). No further details were disclosed, but they will probably seek some common approach to the health crisis.

Both countries have made headlines at different times in the last 18 months for their excellent pandemic management. At present, Chile and Uruguay maintain nearly identical figures for full vaccination of their populations (74% and 72%, respectively).

Also, suthorities from the Chilean delegation will visit the Institut Pasteur in Montevideo, the spearhead of research in Uruguay and a well-known center for the study of Covid-19.