After the government’s decision to annul the project of a nuclear power plant with China that was scheduled for next year due to “budgetary problems” , President Mauricio Macri is preparing to sign a new agreement with his Xi Jinping for development in 2022 of the fifth plant with Chinese technology.
According to confirmed sources of the Executive and ratified the Argentine ambassador in Beijing, Diego Guelar, the idea is that Macri and Xi sign at the end of November in Buenos Aires the agreement for the construction of a HPR 1000 nuclear power plant that would be done with Chinese financing for about 9 Billion US of dollars.
Now, the government has redefined this strategy and decided to move forward with a new agreement with China, but in the long term.
“The signing of the nuclear agreement is central to President Xi’s state visit.” It is not only the construction of a nuclear plant with Chinese technology and financing, but also the development of a nuclear industry for peaceful uses jointly in Argentina to sell to third energy central countries and nuclear medicine material, “confirmed Guelar.
At the same time, the ambassador in China believes that “this agreement demonstrates the great maturity that our strategic partnership has reached”. The new agreement will be for the construction of the plant in 2022. The Government believes that by then Argentina will be in a better position to face the financing of China.
The agreement will be signed on November 30 when Xi arrives in Argentina for the G20 summit and stays on an official visit.
Last March the plan of cuts and reduction of the deficit in the State that Mauricio Macri promised to deepen reached foreign policy. After arduous secret negotiations, the government decided to postpone for the future the construction project of the Central Atucha III that it had planned to carry out with China and saved a program of indebtedness anticipated in 8 Billion US dollars.
The decision was closed between the Foreign Ministry and the Beijing authorities. As confirmed by four qualified sources of government and Chinese diplomacy, the agreement reached was beneficial to both parties for a simple matter: Central Atucha III was a Chinese project shared with technology from Canada.
“A solution was reached that pleased the Chinese and Argentina because it ratifies the integral strategic association of both countries, and while China was going to finance the construction of Atucha III, the country had in its budget an initial debt program for USD 9 Billion that now it will not have it, “explained at the time an official who worked hard in the secret negotiations with Beijing.
In this way, Argentina can be more comfortable in its accounts in the next four years and will ensure by 2022 the construction of the Central Atucha IV with entirely Chinese technology.
