Lula asked IMF to “give Argentina” time to recover from drought

The president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da SIlva, revealed yesterday that he asked the director of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, “to give Argentina” time to fulfill the financial commitments with the organization so that it can recover economically. I asked the director of the IMF to have an understanding that Argentina after the pandemic had a drought that destroyed 25% of its agricultural production and that weighs heavily. So, if Argentina does not have the conditions to comply with the agreement, it is not necessary to pressure it. You have to give him some time to recover. I hope you have understood,” Lula said at a press conference in Hiroshima, Japan, after participating as a guest of the summit of the Group of 7 (G-7). Lula reiterated that he is negotiating aid for Argentina with the New Development Bank, the BRICS Development Bank (Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa), whose head is former President Dilma Rousseff.In turn, he insisted that one of his main international objectives is to de-dollarize international trade and defended a common currency to negotiate foreign trade in South America and a currency like the euro among the BRICS. to Georgieva in an interview conducted Saturday in Hiroshima for thirty minutes. In this way, Lula fulfilled the promise made earlier this month in Brasilia to President Alberto Fernández that Brazil was going to deploy its economic diplomacy to try to strengthen Argentina’s position before the IMF and, above all, generate an environment to give guarantees to Brazilian exporters with collection problems due to lack of dollars in the Central Bank. Argentina is our third trading partner and the first in Latin America and the destination of our manufactures; we want our companies to continue selling to Argentina,” Lula said.He highlighted the agreements between China and Argentina to increase reserves in yuan and thus be able to finance their exports without depending on the dollar. “I dream of building several other currencies so as not to depend on the dollar. I hope that the BRICS bank will create a currency like the euro and for that we must create the political and economic conditions,” Lula emphasized. Lula said Brazil was seeking to avoid what he called a “new Cold War” between the United States and China. “The Cold War after World War II has already happened and I don’t want it to happen again between China and the United States and we are subjected to disputes between the two, we want economies that have the freedom to negotiate and have trade with whoever each country wants,” he said.

Original source in Spanish