President Mauricio Macri received Ambassador Rafael Grossi, the Argentine candidate to preside over the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), at the Casa Rosada. The chancellor, Jorge Faurie, and the Secretary of Strategic Affairs, Fulvio Pompeo, also officially participated. The President showed full support for this candidacy and was correctly informed about the characteristics of the process that opens. Through Faurie, who is the campaign strategist, Macri is making every effort to get closer to all countries to gain support.
Grossi, currently at the head of the Argentine embassy in Vienna, Austria, is a career diplomat with more than 35 years of professional experience in the field of non-proliferation and disarmament. Grossi was Deputy Director-General and Chief of Staff of the IAEA and the chemical weapons ban agency, and also Chairman of the Nuclear Suppliers Group. He is facing another strong candidate to at the presidency, Cornel Feruta from Romania.
The vote, which will take place on October 21, requires the support of two-thirds of the 35 countries that make up the governing board of the agency.
Grossi says that Argentina has a crucial role in one of the most sensitive issues of international politics because nuclear energy is the only one of international strategic weight in which Argentina has a remarkable voice and profile.
Argentina is one of the few developing countries in the southern hemisphere capable of successfully exporting nuclear energy. The fact that Argentina produces a CEO is not a coincidence; it is the same country that sells research reactors to Egypt, Australia, and the Netherlands, and continues to do so. It is a country that has excellent links with everyone, has no strategic problems with anyone, and can be an active bridge builder, especially on sensitive issues.
