Argentina and Russia seek closer cooperation

gl. Argentine President Alberto Fernández met with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Moscow on 3 February before travelling then to Beijing to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping before the opening of the Olympic Games.
  Fernández explicitly thanked Putin for Russia’s great support during the COVID pandemic, when vaccine was still in short supply worldwide. “You were there when the rest of the Western world did not help us with vaccines.” The results of the Russian vaccine, Sputnik V, had been excellent in Argentina, he said. Fernández declared it was a good time to “move forward in other areas as well”. The circumstances are very favourable for closer relations between Russia and Argentina, he said. “We need to see how Argentina can become a strong door opener for Russia to Latin America.” He reminded that his country “is in a special situation because of the debt I inherited”. Since the 1990s, Argentina was very strongly aligned with the United States, and the Argentine economy depended to a large extent on the debt it owes to the US and the IMF, he explained. In 2015, a government had taken office in Argentina that was once again aligned with the US, and it was this government that gave the country the enormous debt that Argentina now has. For this reason, he said, he was firmly determined that Argentina must end its overdependence on the IMF and the US. The country must open up a path to other parts of the world. In this context, Russia plays a very important role, he said.
  For his part, Putin congratulated Argentina on the success of its vaccination campaign. He said there were many areas where the two countries could improve their bilateral cooperation, especially with regard to the great potential in trade.  •

Source: https://www.pagina12.com.ar/399427-alberto-fernandez-con-vladimir-putin-argentina-tiene-que-dej of 3 February 2022