Pedro Sánchez and Alberto Fernández share their total condemnation of Russia's invasion of Ukraine

Moncloa Palace, Madrid

During the meeting, the two leaders confirmed their harmonious view and understanding of the current international situation, expressing their full condemnation of the invasion of Ukraine by Vladimir Putin's regime and reiterating their respect for international legality and the multilateral order.

They also shared the importance of Latin American and European countries continuing to express their firm repudiation of Putin's aggression via United Nations General Assembly voting, thereby underlining the validity and values of respect for international law,

multilateralism and the UN Charter.

In addition to endangering freedom and human rights, Putin's war is also jeopardising energy supplies and global food security through shortages and rising commodity prices.

Argentina is one of the world's major food producers, as well as a major potential energy exporter (gas, liquefied gas and oil). In this context, Spain and Argentina have privileged bilateral relations, "satisfactorily" strengthened since last year via the Strategic Association Plan, which has further raised the level of cooperation, trade exchanges and shared interests between the two countries.

The Action Plan for the Internationalisation of the Spanish Economy 2021-2022 will allocate most of its budget to SMEs and will prioritise Ibero-American countries. This initiative, promoted by the Government of Spain, together with the current context of food and energy shortages, provides a favourable scenario for strengthening the dynamism of trade and investment relations between Spain and Argentina, especially in sectors such as gas and lithium.

Spanish companies and investors remain committed to Argentina, and those that are already present have reiterated their commitment to the country's development. Spain is the second largest investor in the South American country, with a presence of more than 300 companies in key sectors for the economy, such as telecommunications, energy, finance and insurance.

In the field of digitalisation, cooperation between the two countries is increasing. Together with the green transition, Spain has placed digital transformation at the core of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan. We are a world reference in fields such as Digital Rights, where we have launched a pioneering Digital Rights Charter.

During the meeting, President Sánchez conveyed to his Argentinean counterpart our country's desire to explore ways to expand this model from the SEGIB to Latin America as a whole, including more issues related to digitalisation, such as the work linked to the Spanish language on the Internet and data ownership, not forgetting the creation of an Ibero-American Digital Network.

Multilateral negotiations

Foto: Pool Moncloa/Fernando CalvoPedro Sánchez congratulated Alberto Fernández on the agreement reached with the International Monetary Fund, "which Spain naturally supports", and on the achievement of 10% GDP growth by 2021, after two years of pandemic.

The President of Spain also reiterated his country's support for Argentina in its ongoing negotiations with the IMF, the Paris Club and the OECD. "We support the review of the International Monetary Fund's surcharge policy".

Last, Pedro Sánchez thanked Alberto Fernández for Argentina's commitment to the Ibero-American Summits and for his government's support and collaboration with the Ibero-American Summit in Andorra. He also reiterated our country's desire to "continue contributing to the deepening" of the bi-regional partnership between the European Union and Latin America and the Caribbean, including the ratification of the EU-Mercosur Treaty.

Non official translation