Brazil & Southern Cone - 28 September 2004

“We know that some say that we will make a new offer. They are wrong. This is the only offer we will make. There are distorting noises but we want to be clear and say that we will not commit ourselves to something we cannot abide by. We are on our way to being a predictable country. The challenge is also to attain domestic sustainability and to that end we need to cut inequalities."
Argentina's President Néstor Kirchner on the restructuring of its defaulted (bond) debt .

“The greatness of Brazil is linked to an industrialised Argentina."
Brazil's President Lula da Silva, playing down any bilateral trade rift.

“I always reiterated that I wanted our Argentine friends to see Chile at that moment not as part of the problem, but rather as a central element for the solution."
President Lagos referring to the natural gas delivery dispute.