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Summit in Washington: Obama doesn't include Cristina on his agenda
Clarin
April 07, 2010

List of presidents with whom he will meet is released and Argentina is not on it

by Ana Baron
Source: WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT

The White House let it be known yesterday the names of the nine presidents that will have bilateral meetings with President Barack Obama during the Summit on Nuclear Security, but Cristina Kirchner is not on the list. Unless there is a last minute change, it is seen as a new setback for the government.

The spokesman for the White House, Robert Gibbs, specified that the list includes Chinese President Hu Jintao; Angela Merkel; Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh; Armenian President Serge Sargsi n; the King of Jordan, Abdullah II; Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razah, Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani; the President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, and the leader of Kazakhstan, Nursult n Nazarb yev. It could include new names. "This is the list we have currently," he said.

But when this correspondent tried to communicate yesterday with the White House and the State Department to know if at least Cristina could obtain a protocol meeting, or what is called an "informal aside" at the Summit, no response could be obtained.

At a time when the government is about to launch the reopening of the swap, something that the US has demanded, the signal is not positive. Obama has received the presidents of all the large countries of Latin America except for the president of Argentina. While yesterday they explained in Buenos Aires that Obama will not receive any president from the UNASUR block during the Summit on Nuclear Security, that is not a valid argument. Only two countries from UNASUR will participate together with Argentina at the summit, Chile and Brazil. Lula and the ex-president of Chile, Michele Bachelet, have already held bilateral meetings with Obama and Rafael Pi era just took office.

During the last few weeks, rumors have circulated that due to Argentina's position with respect to Iran and nuclear proliferation, Obama could give Cristina her so-desired meeting during the Summit that will begin April 12th.

After the meeting held with Cristina in Buenos Aires, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton praised the fact that Argentina had voted in favor of increasing sanctions against Iran for its nuclear program. But that doesn't seem to have been sufficient, at least is there are no changes like were made to Hillary Clinton's itinerary for her tour that ended up including Argentina.

Obama evidently has other priorities. On the list of presidents that Obama will hold bilateral meetings with includes Chinese President Hu Jintao. The meeting will take place next Monday and will be the first time they'll meet since the beginning of increased diplomatic tensions between Beijing and Washington over the sale of U.S. arms to Taiwan and the meeting between Obama and the Dalia Lama.

While a high official of the State Department came out in favor of a meeting between Cristina and Obama taking place, in an interview with Clarin, he explained on the other hand that there could be problems on the agenda.

The official advised not to read too much into it if the bilateral doesn't materialize. As such, all indications are that the main course of Cristina's trip to Washington will be the luncheon she will hold with investors on Friday and the informal conversations that could come together with other presidents at the Summit, including Hu Jintao, with whom she has a dispute over soy oil.

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