Carlos Alberto Hernandez, the Ambassador of Argentina to the State of Qatar, addressing a press conference at Katara yesterday. Pic: Qassim Rahmatullah / The Peninsula
DOHA: The official visit of Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani to the Republic of Argentina will see signing of several bilateral agreements in different areas, including on-arrival visa facilitation for Qatari nationals.
H H the Amir is visiting Argentina as part of his visit to Latin American countries. This is his second visit to the country within two years. Besides bilateral discussions, H H the Amir will also witness the Youth Olympics being held in Buenos Aires, said Carlos Alberto Hernandez, the Ambassador of Argentina to Qatar, yesterday.
“The visit to the Latin America is very important especially for Argentina because Argentina has been ranked first within Latin America in education and human development by the United Nations,” he said at a press conference held at Katara.
“It is also important because we want a strong relationship with Qatar. We have very dynamic relations at the moment but we want to strengthen them more to achieve goals. That is the most important thing,” he added.
He said that Argentina is making preparations to sign Memoranda of Understandings in the areas of education, sport, youth affairs, technical corporation and others. “However, the signing date might get delayed due to bureaucratic reasons.”
“One important area which will build trust between both countries is the visa waiver for Qatari citizens. Now Qatari citizens need a visa to visit Argentina,” said Hernandez.
Argentina is also seeking to increase the trade volume with Qatar. Minister of Economy and Commerce H E Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim bin Mohammed Al Thani will hold discussions with the Argentina businessmen during the visit. “We want to increase export to Qatar. According to the available information, in 2017 we exported mainly agricultural products for the value of $20m. In the first half of this year (2018), the export of agriculture products went down and industrial products increased,” Hernandez told The Peninsula, speaking on the sidelines of the press conference.
“Qatar exports mainly LNG to Argentina. In 2015, it was 8 percent of the total LNG exported to Argentina. But now it has increased to 47 percent and Qatar has become our main LNG provider,” he said.
Qatar Petroleum is a 30 percent equity holder in two ExxonMobil affiliates in Argentina.
Hernandez said that Qatar Airways will start a direct flight from Doha to Buenos Aires soon, which would help to ease the travel between both cities.
In reply to question regarding the ongoing blockade imposed on Qatar by neighbouring countries, Hernandez said that Argentina has a “clear position” about the issue. “We have good relationships with the neighbours too. But we think this situation (the crisis) is not helping anyone. We want a peaceful prompt solution by respecting the international law, which also means respecting human rights,” he said.
