Economy Minister Axel Kicillof arrived in Paris for the first day of talks with Argentina’s Paris Club creditors over restructuring the country’s debt.
The meeting started minutes after 10 a.m (local time) at French Economy Ministry, in Bercy neighbourhood. Kicillof leads the Argentine delegation that landed in France last night, along with Finances Secretary Pablo López and the members of the Debt Restructuring Unit Hernán Lorenzino and Adrián Cosentino.
Before beggining his trip to Europe, the Economy Minister said the negotiations were “complex” but highlighted the government’s «progress towards an agreement,»
The talks resume today after last January, when the Minister traveled to Paris with Argentina’s first offer, that included an initial payment of 250 millions dollars with the rest of the debt –about 9,000 millon dollars- that creditors claim since the 2002 sovereign default to be paid in a schedule yet to be agreed upon.
“We will not accept conditioning, we will not discuss our economic plan,” Kicillof stressed in January and since then, he has repeatedly pointed out that the negotiations “could take months”, since the Club’s decisions require a consensus among its 19 members.
Argentina has pending debts with 15 of the 19 Paris Club members.
Source: Buenos Aires Herald