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Timerman arrives in the US and is meeting with Hillary
Clarin
August 10, 2010

By Ana Baron
Washington Correspondent

He left Washington in June as ambassador. He returns today as Foreign Minister. For that, during meetings that he will have with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and with various other high officials of the government of Barack Obama and U.S. Members of Congress, Hector Timerman will not need to be introduced. Everyone knows him and logically appreciate the direct access that he has always had with President Cristina Kirchner. That facilitates the fluidity of communication and reduces the chances of short-circuits. But the differences in the bilateral relationship will not disappear from one day to the next.

In fact, yesterday ATFA (the group that lobbies the Congress in the name of the vulture funds thave have sued Argentina before the court of Judge Thomas Griesa) sent a letter to Hillary where they accuse Timerman of having put out disinformation about the debt, saying that U.S. creditors bought their bonds during the military dictatorships, when all of them were bought on the open market during democratic governments. The letter, signed by two ex-officials of Bill Clinton's government, Robert Shapiro and Nancy Sodeberger, concludes by urging Hillary to say publicly that Argentina "must resolve the debt problem once and for all."

Hillary will receive Timerman on the 11th floor of the State Department tomorrow at 10:00 in the morning. The goal is to discuss the bilateral and regional agenda. Therefore, it can't be ruled out that they will speak about issues as diverse as the conflict between Venezuela and Colombia, the Iran problem and nuclear disarmament, the return of Honduras to the OAS and the importation of Argentine lemons to the U.S. market.

Today, shortly after landing in Washington, Timerman meets with Mike Froman, one of the main advisors in the White House on international economics. Froman is a friend of Obama since both were editors of the Harvard Law Review. Currently he is a member of the National Economic Council and the National Security Council. He's also the main coordinator of the G-20 and for that he knows Timerman well, who is Cristina's representative to that forum.

Afterwards, the foreign minister will meet with the man in charge of the region for the National Security Council, Dan Restrepo, and will participate in a luncheon organized in his honor by Democratic Representative Eliot Engle, who is chairman of the subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere.

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