Massa thanked the Biden government for the swift and firm condemnation of the attack on Cristina

In his first activity of his high-profile visit to Washington, The Minister of Economy Sergio Massa was received at the Department of State, dwhere they talked about the challenges of the global agenda and the Argentine thanked the government of Joe Biden for the immediate and firm condemnation of the United States to the attempted murder of Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.

Massa had a business lunch with Brian Nichols, Undersecretary for the Western Hemisphere and with other officials working in the region such as Ricardo Zuniga and Mark Wells. The US ambassador in Buenos Aires was also present at the meeting. Marco Stanley; the ambassador to Washington Jorge Argoello and the adviser for international affairs of Massa, Gustavo Martinez Pandiani.

It was a “rigorous” visit, the sources said Clarione, but the minister is seen as a figure of his weight and political interest in Washington, beyond his current position in the economic portfolio.

According to the minister’s delegation, eIn the meeting they analyzed the global agenda for food security and issues related to energy and development with inclusion.

But at the beginning of the meeting, the attack on the vice president was also briefly discussed, which caused concern in Joe Biden’s government. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken condemned the attack “strongly” and Ambassador Stanley had done so earlier in a tweet.

In formal introductions, Massa thanked the Americans for the “firm and swift” condemnation of the Biden administration.. And Stanley himself pointed out that he was one of the first diplomats to repudiate the fact.

So the talks moved to cglobal problems. The United States is closely examining Argentina’s strategic advantages as a food, protein and energy plant, which have acquired significant value in recent times after the pandemic and the war in Ukraine. And our country tries to position itself as a world player in this sense.

Following his appointment to the State Department, the minister attended an investment business meeting with authorities Volkswagen and Amazon.

Later he will meet Jack Rosen, president of the American Jewish Congress which he usually sees every time he visits the United States and will surely face political tensions in Argentina and concern over the assassination attempt.

Rosen is a billionaire global real estate businessman who also owns healthcare and cosmetic companies as well one of the main donors of the Democratic Party.

In the afternoon he will go to the headquarters of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to meet its president, Maurizio Claver Carone, to try to unlock a loan of 500 million dollars which is estimated to have been blocked by the Cuban-American because he suspects that behind an anonymous complaint against him in which he was accused of having an alleged relationship with a colleague and for corruption, two facts for which is under investigation.

The minister will try to reconstruct the relations that had already been complicated by Gustavo Béliz’s candidacy for the position that Claver ended up occupying.

He will then hold an event at the Argentine tourism promotion embassy and close the day with a dinner with Giovanni Gonzalez, Biden Advisor for Latin America.

At the same time, the economic team continues to negotiate with the IMF. The Argentine “team” is made up of Leonardo Madcur (head of the councilors); Deputy Minister Gabriel Rubinstein; Raúl Rigo (Treasure); Eduardo Setti and Leandro Toriano (Finance); Lisandro Cleri (Central Bank) and Marco Lavagna (Indec). Luis Cubeddu and his team are on the IMF side, as well as the agency’s representative in Argentina, Ben Kelmanson.

The teams review compliance with the program objectives to anticipate the IMF disbursement of $ 4 trillion in September, while the Argentines will present the economic measures taken in these days to meet the fiscal goals of the program and add reserves, sometimes when the speakers are in red.

Experts don’t expect major problems with this revision, but Massa may be trying to “recalibrate” some goals because year-end reviews seem difficult to achieve. Everything will be sealed when Massa comes face to face with Kristalina Georgieva next Monday.