Argentina FM Santiago Cafiero sees energy transition, civil nuclear technology as key to joint Saudi-Argentine fight against climate change

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Updated 10 November 2022
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Argentina FM Santiago Cafiero sees energy transition, civil nuclear technology as key to joint Saudi-Argentine fight against climate change

  • Argentina has solar and green hydrogen and sustainability initiatives such as regenerative agriculture to offer, Cafiero told Arab News during exclusive interview
  • He said the two countries should connect not only through commercial and political developments but also in areas of culture and institutions

RIYADH: Energy transition, civil nuclear technology and environmental sustainability are among the many potential areas of cooperation between Argentina and Saudi Arabia in the fight against climate change, Santiago Cafiero, the Argentine minister of foreign affairs, said during an exclusive interview with Arab News on Wednesday.

Considerations such as these are high on the global diplomatic agenda this month. Cafiero’s visit to Saudi Arabia coincides with the ongoing UN Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Egypt, where the Kingdom is showcasing its Saudi Green and Middle East Green Initiatives.

“Argentina has signed up to the international commitments and it has actually raised its ambitions with respect to carbon emissions,” said Cafiero, highlighting the South American nation’s commitment to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

In this context, he cited energy-transition projects involving solar and green hydrogen as well as sustainability initiatives such as regenerative agriculture as some of the country’s many strengths.

“Argentina is the eighth largest country in the world. It has an immense geography, and it has natural resources that are very well known. But we also take great care of them. We have a view of sustainable productive development with respect to the environment and we intend to keep it that way,” he said.

“Argentina has an important role to play in terms of the energy transition. Today we have green hydrogen projects and we also have developments of strategic minerals for electro mobility, such as copper and lithium. Argentina can really become an important player for the energy transition and there I think we can do cooperative work with Saudi Arabia.”




Soft power and expertise exchange are key to growing ties between Buenos Aires and Riyadh, Argentina’s foreign minister told Arab News assistant editor-in-chief Noor Nugali. (AN Photo/Huda Bashatah)

Cafiero’s visit to the Kingdom — his first as Argentina’s top diplomat — comes as the world faces multiple overlapping crises — from the residual effects of the COVID-19 pandemic to inflation, climate pressures and the war in Ukraine — that have caused disruptions to global food and energy supply chains.

While Saudi Arabia and Argentina have risen to these challenges in their own ways, Cafiero believes the two countries have much to contribute by cooperating in everything from business and diplomacy to energy security.

“In this time of uncertainty, I think that friendly countries like Saudi Arabia and Argentina have a lot to contribute to the world if they come together, if they work together and cooperate,” Cafiero told Arab News.

According to Cafiero, Saudi Arabia and Argentina have “all the possibilities” to connect their two peoples commercially, politically and in the areas of culture and clean energy.

“Argentina has natural and human resources,” he said, “and it also has a strong political inclination to move in this direction together with Saudi Arabia when it comes to developing business links, trade, and also to lend a hand to the rest of the world to provide energy and secure food.”

Last year, Argentina’s President Alberto Fernandez urged investors from Saudi Arabia and other countries to “turn your gaze to Argentina,” saying that he wanted foreign investment that “produces and wins.” Since then, fresh business ties have already been established.

“Today, the work that we are carrying forward, in the ministry of foreign affairs and international trade, is that of a road map for strategic sectors that we understand are of interest to Saudi Arabia. These are agribusiness and the biotechnology industry,” said Cafiero.

“And then we also have an interesting development in knowledge-driven economy and strategic minerals. Argentina also has a great capacity for its own development of services related to non-conventional gas production, and high-tech sectors such as the satellite industry or the application of nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.”

Civil nuclear technology is a promising area of cooperation between the two countries. Saudi Arabia — blessed not only with the great gift of oil but also with vast reserves of the uranium required for nuclear generation — is currently planning its first reactor in collaboration with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

“Argentina looks back on 70 years of work on nuclear technology for peaceful purposes,” said Cafiero. “In fact, we are developing a reactor for studies here in Saudi Arabia and for the development of applications related to nuclear technology. That is, applications related to nuclear medicine, cancer treatment and some even applied to agricultural products.

“We also apply nuclear technology to eliminate plastic from the oceans, which is something we are already doing in Antarctica.”

For all its technological strengths, Argentina’s economy has endured several turbulent years, mainly owing to chronic inflation. Last month, the IMF, which has described the country’s economic situation as “fragile,” approved a $17.5 billion loan to Buenos Aires — the second installment of a $44 billion support package.

FASTFACT

* $1.03bn - Value of Saudi imports from Argentina in 2021.

(Source: UN COMTRADE)

Cafiero says that the Argentine economy has now returned to growth, resulting in booming exports, record foreign investment and rising employment.

“We are optimistic about the path that the Argentine economy is taking,” said Cafiero. “We had three consecutive years of economic recession: 2018, 2019 and 2020, with the pandemic.

“Only in 2021 Argentina started to grow again and it grew a lot: 10.3 percent this year. In the first half of this year, we also have a growth of six points in gross national product. So we believe that we are on the right track.”

He added: “During the last year 1.2 million jobs have been created. So far this year, 30,000 jobs have been generated every month … In the first half of the year 2022 we have a record investment rate in the history of Argentina and we are going to reach record export levels during this year.”

Despite its recent economic misfortunes, Argentina remains well known for its wealth of cultural icons, from its acclaimed authors such as Victoria Ocampo and musical greats such as Diego Torres to its celebrated sportsmen Messi and Maradona.




Santiago Cafiero meeting with Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan during his visit to the Kingdom. (Twitter/@SantiagoCafiero)

As Saudi Arabia emerges as the Middle East’s new hub for the arts, culture, music, sports and filmmaking, Cafiero believes there is a role for soft power in forging closer ties between the Kingdom and Argentina.

“I think we have all the possibilities to bring more Argentina to Saudi Arabia, and more Saudi Arabia to Argentina,” he said. “We should therefore connect these two peoples not only in their commercial and political development, but we also have to move forward from a cultural point of view.

Referring to Saudi Arabia’s opening match against much-fancied Argentina at the World Cup in Qatar on Nov. 22, Cafiero said: “With respect to football, although we are only divided by one match and we both want our team to win. It really is a sport that builds bridges.”

On the diplomatic front, the Arab Gulf states have long had concerns about Iranian and Hezbollah activities in Latin America. Several regional governments have made attempts to build ties with Iran, doing little to relieve those concerns.

Such attempts by Argentina have been less pronounced in recent decades. After a period of nuclear cooperation that began in the mid-1980s, relations with Iran were set back by two bombings in Buenos Aires in the early 1990s.




Argentina’s top diplomat Cafiero said his country and Saudi Arabia could cooperate in the field of environmental sustainability while forging closer commercial, political, cultural and institutional relations. (AN Photo/Huda Bashatah)

Those bombings, the first of the Israeli embassy in 1992 and the second that of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association in 1994, destroyed what had previously been a close and mutually beneficial relationship.

“Argentina’s diplomatic relationship with Iran is on a rather low level, as a result of the attacks that Argentina suffered in 1992 and 1994,” said Cafiero.

“At that time, the Argentine justice system requested Iranian authorities to be part of the investigation but they did not cooperate. Since then, this relationship is therefore a tense one.”

By contrast, Cafiero says Saudi Arabia and Argentina can strengthen the international order through cooperation, and enrich one another by establishing cultural and institutional bridges.

“We need a safer world and we strive for that security from the basis of a multilateralism in solidarity,” he said.

“I think we both have two cultures that are very powerful cultures and they should build bridges between each other. Once they know and understand each other, they will surely enrich each other.”

 


Hungary PM Orban says Europe cannot finance Ukraine war alone

Updated 4 sec ago
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Hungary PM Orban says Europe cannot finance Ukraine war alone

  • Viktor Orban: ‘The Americans will quit this war, first of all they will not encourage the war’
BUDAPEST: The United States under the presidency of Donald Trump will “quit” the war in Ukraine and Europe cannot finance this war alone, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban told state radio on Friday before an informal summit of EU leaders in Budapest.
“The Americans will quit this war, first of all they will not encourage the war,” Orban said. “Europe cannot finance this war alone ... some still want to continue sending enormous amounts of money into this lost war but the number of those who remain silent ...and those who cautiously voice that we should adjust to the new situation, is growing.”

United Nations warily awaits Donald Trump’s return to power

Updated 08 November 2024
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United Nations warily awaits Donald Trump’s return to power

  • Concerns at UN about Washington’s budget contributions
  • Trump expected to withdraw from climate deal again
  • UN has done ‘prudent planning’ ahead of Trump return

GENEVA: The United Nations has been planning for the possible return of Donald Trump and the cuts to US funding and engagement with world body that are likely to come with his second term as president.
There was a sense of “déjà vu and some trepidation” at the 193-member world body, said one senior Asian diplomat, as Republican Trump won Tuesday’s US election over Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.
“There is also some hope that a transactional administration will engage the UN on some areas even if it were to defund some dossiers. After all, what bigger and better global stage is there than the United Nations?” said the diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity.
A US retreat at the UN could open the door for China, which has been building its influence in global diplomacy.
Trump has offered few specifics about foreign policy in his second term but supporters say the force of his personality and his “peace through strength” approach will help bend foreign leaders to his will. He has vowed to solve the war in Ukraine and is expected to give strong support to Israel in its conflicts with Hamas and Hezbollah in Gaza and southern Lebanon.
Among the top concerns at the UN are whether the United States will decide to contribute less money to the world body and withdraw from key multinational institutions and agreements, including the world Heath Organization and the Paris climate agreement.
US funding is the immediate worry. Washington is the UN’s largest contributor — with China second — accounting for 22 percent of the core UN budget and 27 percent of the peacekeeping budget.
A country can be up to two years in arrears before facing the possible repercussion of losing its General Assembly vote.

’Extremely hard’
Trump came to power last time proposing to cut about a third off US diplomacy and aid budgets, which included steep reductions in funding for UN peacekeeping and international organizations. But Congress, which sets the federal US government budget, pushed back on Trump’s proposal.
A UN spokesperson said at the time the proposed cuts would have made it impossible to continue all essential work.
“The UN secretariat has known that they could face a Trump comeback all year. There has been prudent planning behind the scenes on how to manage potential US budget cuts,” said Richard Gowan, UN director at the International Crisis Group.
“So (UN Secretary-General Antonio) Guterres and his team are not totally unprepared, but they know the next year will be extremely hard,” he said.
Trump’s team did not immediately respond to a query about his policy toward the UN after he takes office in January.
During his first term, Trump complained that the US was shouldering an unfair burden of the cost of the UN and pushed for reforms. Washington is traditionally slow to pay and when Trump left office in 2021 the US was in arrears about $600 million for the core budget and $2 billion for peacekeeping.
According to UN figures, President Joe Biden’s administration currently owes $995 million for the core UN budget and $862 million for the peacekeeping budget.
“I don’t want to pre-empt or speak about policies that may or may not happen, but we work with member states in the way we’ve always worked with member states,” Guterres’ spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters on Wednesday.
In 2026, the UN Security Council will choose Guterres’ successor, a decision in which the Trump administration will hold a veto power.

’Great news for China’
During Trump’s first term, he was critical of the United Nations and wary of multilateralism. He announced plans to quit the World Health Organization, and pulled out of the UN Human Rights Council, the UN cultural agency UNESCO, a global climate change accord and the Iran nuclear deal.
When Biden succeeded him in 2021, he rescinded the US decision to withdraw from the WHO and returned the US to UNESCO and the climate agreement. Trump’s campaign has said he would quit the climate deal again if he won office.
“It will survive. But, of course, it will probably survive severely undermined,” Guterres told Reuters in September of a second withdrawal from the climate pact by Trump.
Ahead of the US election, a senior European diplomat said a Trump win would be “great news for China,” recalling that during Trump’s first term “the Chinese influence in the UN increased a lot because it was an open bar for the Chinese.”
The diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that if Trump again cuts UN funding and withdraws from international pacts “it will just give China the opportunity to present itself as the supporter number one of multilateralism.”
US funding for some other UN agencies is also in question. One of the first moves by the Trump administration in 2017 was to cut funding for UN Population Fund (UNFPA), the international body’s agency focused on family planning as well as maternal and child health in more than 150 countries.
Trump’s administration said UNFPA “supports ... a program of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization.” The UN said that was an inaccurate perception. Biden restored US funding for UNFPA.
If Trump again cuts funding, UNFPA warned that “women will lose lifesaving services in some of the world’s most devastating crises” in places like Afghanistan, Sudan and Ukraine.
Under Trump’s first presidency, the US also opposed long-agreed international language on women’s sexual and reproductive rights and health in UN resolutions over concern that it would advance abortion rights.
A senior African diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, summed up the impending return of Trump for multilateralism and the United Nations: “The heavens help us.”


At least 25 wounded as apartment building hit by Russian missile

Updated 08 November 2024
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At least 25 wounded as apartment building hit by Russian missile

  • 12-story residential building was struck by a bomb that partially destroyed the first and third floors
  • A barrage of drones also struck Odesa and its suburbs in south of the country, wounding at least two people

KYIV: At least 25 people were wounded in an overnight Russian strike on an apartment block in Kharkiv, the mayor of Ukraine’s second city said Friday.
The 12-story residential building was struck by a bomb that partially destroyed the first and third floors, Mayor Igor Terekhov wrote on Telegram.
“The number of injured keeps increasing. As of now, there are 25 of them,” he added.
Rescue efforts were under way for inhabitants trapped on the third floor.
The Ukrainian president’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, accused Russia of “deliberately hitting an apartment block.”
“The Russians are also attacking Kyiv with missiles,” he added.
Separately, Kyiv’s military office said that anti-missile air defenses were operating in the capital.
A barrage of drones also struck Odesa and its suburbs in the south of the country, wounding at least two people, the region’s governor Oleg Kiper said.
Kyiv was targeted on Thursday by another “massive” Russian drone attack that wounded two people, damaged buildings and sparked fires in several districts, Ukrainian authorities said.
Russia has systematically targeted the capital with drone and missile barrages since the first day of its invasion launched nearly three years ago on February 24, 2022.
Ukrainian authorities have been seeking air defense systems from their allies to fend off Russian aerial attacks.


At least 2 dead and 12 missing after a fishing boat sinks off South Korea’s Jeju island

Updated 08 November 2024
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At least 2 dead and 12 missing after a fishing boat sinks off South Korea’s Jeju island

  • Nearby fishing vessels managed to pull 15 crew members out of the water, but two of them were later pronounced dead
  • 27 crew members were on the 129-tonne boat, which left Jeju’s Seogwipo port late Thursday to catch mackerel

SEOUL: A fishing boat capsized and sank off the coast of South Korea’s Jeju island Friday, leaving at least two people dead and 12 others unaccounted for, coast guard officials said.
Nearby fishing vessels managed to pull 15 crew members out of the water, but two of them were later pronounced dead after being brought to shore. The other 13 did not sustain life-threatening injuries, said Kim Han-na, an official at Jeju’s coast guard.
She said 27 crew members – 16 South Korean nationals and 11 foreigners – were on the 129-tonne boat, which left Jeju’s Seogwipo port late Thursday to catch mackerel. The coast guard received a distress signal at around 4:30 a.m. Friday from a nearby fishing vessel that conducted rescue efforts as the boat sank 24 kilometers northwest of the island.
At least 11 vessels and nine aircraft from South Korea’s coast guard, police, fire service and military were deployed as of Friday morning to search for survivors. They were being assisted by 13 civilian vessels.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol called for officials to mobilize all available resources to find and rescue the missing crew members, his office said.


South Korea holds missile drill after North Korea launches

Updated 08 November 2024
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South Korea holds missile drill after North Korea launches

  • The nuclear-armed North had test-fired what it said was its most advanced and powerful solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile
  • Hyunmoo surface-to-surface short-range missile was sent into the West Sea in the exercise

SEOUL: South Korea fired a ballistic missile into the sea in a show of force after North Korea’s recent salvo of missile launches, Seoul said Friday.
The nuclear-armed North had test-fired what it said was its most advanced and powerful solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) as well as a number of short-range ballistic missiles in separate drills over the last two weeks.
South Korea’s military command said its live-fire exercise was aimed at demonstrating its “strong resolve to firmly respond to any North Korean provocation.”
It also underlined its “capability and readiness for precision strikes against the enemy’s origin of provocation,” the Joint Chiefs of Staff added.
A Hyunmoo surface-to-surface short-range missile was sent into the West Sea in the exercise, the military command said.
South Korea started domestic production of short-range ballistic missiles in the 1970s to counter the threats posed by North Korea.
Hyunmoo are a series of missiles which are key to the country’s so-called ‘Kill Chain’ preemptive strike system, which allows Seoul to launch a preemptive attack if there are signs of imminent North Korean attack.
In early October, the country displayed for the first time its largest ballistic missile, the Hyunmoo-5, which is capable of destroying underground bunkers.
Last Sunday, South Korea, Japan and the United States conducted a joint air drill involving a US B-1B bomber, South Korean F-15K and KF-16 fighter jets, and Japanese F-2 jets, in response to the North’s ICBM launch.
Such joint drills infuriate Pyongyang, which views them as rehearsals for invasion.
Kim Yo Jong, sister of the country’s leader and a key spokesperson, called the US-South Korea-Japan exercises an “action-based explanation of the most hostile and dangerous aggressive nature of the enemy toward our Republic.”
The drill was an “absolute proof of the validity and urgency of the line of building up the nuclear forces we have opted for and put into practice,” she added.