Buenos Aires. Since the war in Ukraine began on February 24, Argentina has exposed a diplomatic strategy of zigzags with support or lukewarm questions to Russia whose results are in sight: the presence of a two-headed government where Alberto Fernández defines a course and Cristina Kirchner watches the other way on foreign policy.
Cristin Kirchner launched an almost electoral campaign speech at the opening of the EuroLat Forum where more than 150 deputies from Latin America and Europe were stunned. The vice president not only avoided questioning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but also set the “double standard of international law” against world powers and harshly harangued NATO in a message questioned by the European Union and the opposition.
In the Casa Rosada there is a certain climate of concern about the consequences that Kirchner’s pro-Russian message could bring about. In the Frente de Todos there is a division on the war, in the opposition there is a harsh questioning of the “diplomacy of ambiguity” and among the foreign ambassadors there is confusion and uncertainty.
Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero tried to banish the idea of a two-headed government by arguing that “the President is the only essential member of the Executive; all the others are expendable.” And he made it clear that foreign policy is defined only by Alberto Fernández.
The Italian MEP, Nicola Danti, said very upset that “they took us to an electoral rally” and among the EU diplomats there was a lot of discomfort with the vice president. Not only this: the chargé d’affaires of the Ukrainian embassy in Argentina, Sergiy Nebrat, told El Cronista, stupefied: “in her speech, the vice president never spoke of Russia’s war against our country.”
zigzag
The zigzagging of Argentina before the war persists. Barely 24 hours after endorsing the expulsion of Russia at the UN Human Rights Council, Argentina exposed a photograph that unleashed the wrath of Ukraine. The Argentine ambassador to international organizations in Geneva, Federico Villegas, received the Russian ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Gennady Gatilov, at his residence. Those from Venezuela, Bolivia, China and Belarus also attended.
To all this minuet of diplomatic ups and downs in Argentina, we must add the encrypted cable from Vice Foreign Minister Pablo Tettamanti who responds to Cristina Kirchner in which she tried to stop Alberto Fernández’s decision to expel Russia from the UN Human Rights Council. But the play did not produce results.