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Timerman arrives in the U.S. amidst praise from Hillary Clinton for the country
La Nacion
August 11, 2010

The secretary highlighted the good bilateral syntony; the foreign minister will ask for greater opening of trade

Silvia Pisani
US Correspondent

WASHINGTON.- "Arentina is a valuable partner" for the United States, said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, previering her welcome for Foreign Minister Hector Timerman, with whom she will hold her first working meeting today as the two responsible for the diplomacy of their respective countries.

Both countries have the tradition of "close collaboration" on issues like "nuclear non-proliferation, the fight against terrorism and drug trafficking and in favor of human rights and international peace," particularly with the peace-keeping forces in Haiti, Clinton pointed out.

The differences will come, certainly, over the situation in Honduras. The demand by the Caribbean country to be readmitted to the OAS is among the issues that Clinton will put forth. And in that, Argentina remains resistant: "We cannot endorse a coup d'etat," Timerman said.

Another sensitive area could raise the interest of Washington to evaluate the tension between Venezuela and Colombia. "We speak with everyone," Timerman said, while the Casa Rosada defends its "relations" with Venezuela's Hugo Chavez.

In the prologues for the meeting, Timerman was no less courteous and said that Hillary "is a voice which listens" and thought of her as an official in the Barack Obama administration that "pays more attention" to Argentina.

Hillary Clinton "has sympathy and interest for the region and for Argentina in particular," said the foreign minister, who attributed part of that to the "good relations" that the secretary of state "keeps with President Cristina Kirchner." As a sign of that interest, Timerman pointed to the "good signal" sent by having been "invited" by the secretary of state to a working meeting when not even two months have passed since he took office as foreign minister.

"The truth is that Hillary invited me to see her last June, right after I took office, but it couldn't be arranged sooner," Timerman said. The carrier of the invite was the number three at the State Department, William Burns. "It's a very good sign in a bilateral relationship that is good and which has no conflicts," Timerman said. And if there is something he wants to work on for the future it is "a greater opening of the market" in the U.S. for food products that Argentina produces, above all meat and fruit.

For the diplomat, he aspires to get Washington's recognition for "the labor" by UNASUR, led by ex-president Nestor Kirchner. Particularly, he said, in what he referred to as "the pacification of conflicts" in the region.

Timerman spoke yesterday on both issues greater recognition of UNASUR and the opening of the markets with Obama officials. He spoke with international advisor Mike Froman and his man for Latin America, Dan Restrepo.

But the salient note of his first day of activities in this capital city was his interest to expound upon, he said, "the democratization of journalism in Argentina," for which he asked for a meeting with the head of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Julius Genachowski.

While it didn't figure into the list made by the State Department yesterday, Timerman did highlight the "shared work" by the G-20 and the "good moment in Argentina's international relations." In that point, the foreign minister recalled that by request of Obama a follow-up meeting on nuclear security will be held in Buenos Aires in November, in which 49 countries will attend.

"THE DIFFICULTIES HAVE ALREADY BEEN OVERCOME"

* WASHINGTON.- Friends are friends. The Democratic congressman and chairman of the foreign relations committee for Latin America, Eliot Engel, said that the bilateral relationship already overcame "the difficulties" of the Antonini case and the "irritation" of the Argentine government by protests over legal insecurity. Engel told LA NACION that the tension was overcome thanks to the "strong common objectives" the countries share, particularly in the condemnation and promotion of sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program. "The relationship is strong and is strengthening more," Engel said, who yesterday shared a luncheon with Foreign Minister Hector Timerman.

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