Argentine President
Cancels China Trip
BUENOS AIRES - Skeptical of leaving the
country for 10 days, Argentine President
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner postponed her
Asian trip on Tuesday, calling it “too long
especially when the country’s Vice President
does not fulfill the role that has been
assigned to him.”
She went on to say that Vice President Julio
Cobos cannot serve his role and be a
“dissident.”
Cobos and Fernández de Kirchner have been at
odds most recently over her desire to force
Central Bank President Martin Redrado to
step down. But the vice president urged her
to "reconsider the situation" and go to
China, promising that he would not sign any
decrees in her absence without consent.
The January 25-28 trip would have been the
first state visit to China since taking
office in 2007. Her agenda was scheduled to
have included meetings with Chinese
President Hu Jintao, Chairman of the
Standing Committee of the National People's
Congress Wu Bangguo and Premier Wen Jiabao.
Numerous cooperation agreements were to have
been signed.
Bilateral relations grew tense last month
after an Argentine judge had requested that
Interpol issue an arrest warrant for former
Chinese President Jiang Zemin over treatment
of Falun Gong practitioners. With concerns
mounting about Argentina’s debt, neither
side would discuss whether China was
prepared to provide any aid or grant loans.
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