India and Argentina celebrated 75 years of diplomatic relations early this year. How strong have bilateral relations become on a scale of ten?

The two countries have enjoyed a very friendly relationship for 75 years based on mutual trust and mutual benefit. India has supported Argentina in the very strategic question of the Islas Malvinas, which is a dispute that we have with the British, with the UK. So we thank India for their longstanding support to the claim of Argentina to be able to exercise its full sovereignty over those territories that belong to Argentina, but were occupied by a foreign force for so many years.

The other highlight of our relationship is trade. Trade between the two countries is around US$ 4.5 - 5 billion. Besides, both the countries are based on the idea of democracy. We share common values in spite of the huge distance between the two countries and the different cultures we follow — we belong to Latin American culture and you are an Asian nation. But at the same time, we share the values of democracy, of limited government, respect for human dignity, and division of power. And we are secular states and the idea that power has to be limited. We are part of G20, we share a number of multilateral forums in which we have worked together for many years.

But Argentina is not in the BRICS expanded forum?

Argentina, under the leadership of President Javier Milei, decided that joining BRICS at this stage was not convenient for our national interest, instead decided to deepen bilateral links like with India.

Over 20 years ago Jim O’Neill from Goldman Sachs in a report stated that four countries in the world Brazil, Russia, India and China would be holding the biggest share of the world’s economy. Afterwards BRICS incorporated South Africa in order to have a geographical representation of an African country.

Recently BRICS decided to enlarge the membership and Argentina was invited to become a member. But Argentina is avoiding being a part of a strategic competition between great powers.

And then we have the special situation of Iran becoming a new member of BRICS at the same time we were offered membership. We have a very complicated relationship with Iran. When I talk of Iran, I am not talking about the Iranian people, I am talking about the Islamic Republic of Iran that has governed that country for the last 45 years, since the revolution. We know that the regime is an anti-Western regime; it’s a regime that promotes terrorism, and we were victims of that; Hezbollah attacked Argentina in 1992, 1994, against the Jewish community, against Argentina, and we cannot accept that.

On Islas Malvinas, how does your country plan to find a lasting solution?

It has been occupied by the British since 1833. These territories were part of the Spanish power. When Argentina became a sovereign state, an independent country, we inherited it. We decided in the last constitutional reform to put the claim for sovereignty over those territories in the constitution. We also established the concept that a solution has to be reached through diplomatic and peaceful means, not through war. We had a war 42 years ago with the UK and Argentina lost that war, unfortunately. And that complicated our situation. So, what we are doing is to make this claim in the diplomatic arena, in a peaceful way. And we thank India for their commitment and support.