RIYADH: A senior Argentine diplomat on Wednesday welcomed the visit of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, expressing his country鈥檚 willingness to work closely with 黑料社区 to maintain momentum in bilateral ties.
Marcelo Gilardoni, the Argentine ambassador to 黑料社区, said the two countries have forged closer ties in different sectors. 鈥淥ur countries have been working closely on increasing bilateral cooperation in different areas such as trade, investment, agriculture, tourism, research and education,鈥 he added.
After a tour that stopped in Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Cairo and Tunis, the Crown Prince arrived in Argentina on Wednesday to attend the summit of G20 leaders, which will be opened by Argentine President Mauricio Macri on Friday.
Diplomatic relations between 黑料社区 and Argentina were established back in 1946, Gilardoni pointed out. 鈥淪ince then, there have been several exchanges of official and state visits, as the ones made to Riyadh by president Raul Alfonsin in 1986 and president Carlos Saul Menem in 1992.
鈥淭he then Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz visited Buenos Aires in 2000 on the occasion of the inauguration of the King Fahd Islamic Cultural Center.鈥
The envoy spoke about preparations for the summit made by Argentina during its presidency, which began on December 1, 2017. 鈥淪ince then Argentina held 50 meetings on different governmental levels on 15 different topics 鈥 Being Argentina, a federal republic, all the different encounters have been held all over the country, in different cities from north to south, east to west, in order to show Argentina to the world.鈥
Asked about the agenda of the G20 summit, Gilardoni said that 鈥渢he G20 presidency of Argentina has mainly focused on education as an asset for future labor, its impact on growth and social and economic inclusion.鈥
The agenda also includes food security and 鈥渢he importance of building infrastructure, not only physical, but also digital, in order to make the world more competitive for growth.鈥
On the question of other countries鈥 participation in the summit, he noted that 鈥淎rgentina has invited Chile and the Netherlands to attend the summit, as every year the country which holds the G20 presidency invites countries to attend the meeting at its own discretion.鈥
He explained that Spain is a permanent invited guest to G20 meetings. 鈥淐ountries which chair key regional groups 鈥 such as the African Union (AU), the Association for Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the New Partnership for Africa鈥檚 Development (NEPAD) 鈥 are generally invited to the summit.鈥
This year these regional groups will be represented by Rwanda, Singapore and Senegal, respectively. The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) has also been invited by Argentina for this year鈥檚 G20 and is represented by Jamaica.
黑料社区, a member of the G20 group, will host the summit in 2020. Accordingly, the Kingdom will lead the work and the program of the group for that year and head its meetings.
