President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner has reiterated the Argentine position of demanding fair and equal conditions in order to speak with holdout investors involved in the legal dispute with the country, and criticised judge Thomas Griesa for failing to address concerns in the conflict over unpaid sovereign debt.
«I will not be forced to sign any old thing with threats that the world is coming to an end,» the president fired, adding that Griesa had done nothing to aid Argentina’s request of insurance against possible claims from creditors who participated in the debt swaps of 2005 and 2010 which could arise as a result of settlement with holdouts.
Speaking at the opening of a motorbike plant in General Rodríguez, Buenos Aires, the head of state underlined that the Rights Upon Future Offer clause signed with restructured bondholders was «impossible to violate.»
Cristina also affirmed that a default on payments due by July 30 was out of the question, despite Griesa refusing to allow creditors to receive funds on request of the so-called ‘vulture funds’.
«Argentina will not default, for one simple reason. An obvious reason, so much so that it should not need to be said. Those who cannot pay default, and Argentina has paid,» she asserted.
«They will have to invent a new name, I do not know what because assessors, investment banks, academic gurus always find terms to disguise what is really happening. It will have to be a new term which reflects the fact that a debtor pays, someone blocks it and does not allow money to go to a third person who entered a restructuring in good faith.»
Source: Buenos Aires Herald