The Ambassador of Argentina in Lebanon H.E. Mr. Jose Gutierrez Maxwell presented a lecture on April 7, 2011 within the framework of a series of lectures for the 2010 – 2011 academic year, given by the ambassadors of Latin America in Lebanon, organized by the Higher Institute of Political and Administrative Sciences and the Center of Studies and Cultures of Latin America (CECAL) at USEK, under the theme of: “Foreign Policy – Latin America and its Relations with the Middle East”.

Following the welcome speech by Mr. Khalil Abboud, Vice Director of the Student Affairs Office, the Ambassador presented a geographical overview of Argentina, pointing out that the country is a member of the G20 due to its economic development. He tackled as well the relations between Lebanon and Argentina, mentioning that about 1.5 million descendants of Lebanese origin have succeeded throughout the past 100 years in integrating in Argentina after deploying a lot of efforts and they knew how to gain respect and appreciation of Argentines. Moreover, he stressed that “the importance of the Middle East in the foreign policy of Argentine is clearly rising… Argentina is interested in promoting its relations with the Arab world due to commercial and investment opportunities offered by the market”.

At last, the Ambassador offered a valuable book to the CECAL library entitled “The Poets of Argentina”, written by Edgardo Zwein, translated to Arabic by Sabah Zwein, and issued by Nelson Publishing House in 2011.