page_title: Néstor Kirchner
section_title: Foreign policy
hierarchical_section_title: Néstor Kirchner / Presidency / Foreign policy
caption_attribution_description: Brasília - Presidente Lula e os presidentes Hugo Chavez e Néstor Kirchner durante reunião na Granja do Torto
context_page_description: Néstor Carlos Kirchner Jr. was an Argentine politician who served as President of Argentina, Governor of Santa Cruz Province, Secretary General of UNASUR and the First Gentleman during his wife, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner's tenure. He was President of the Justicialist Party from 2008 to 2010. Ideologically, he identified himself as a Peronist and a social democrat, with his political approach called Kirchnerism.
  Born in Río Gallegos, Santa Cruz, Kirchner studied law at the National University of La Plata. He met and married Cristina Fernández at this time, returned with her to Río Gallegos at graduation, and opened a law firm. Commentators have criticized him for a lack of legal activism during the Dirty War, an issue he would involve himself in as president. Kirchner ran for mayor of Río Gallegos in 1987 and for governor of Santa Cruz in 1991. He was reelected governor in 1995 and 1999 due to an amendment of the provincial constitution. Kirchner sided with Buenos Aires provincial governor Eduardo Duhalde against President Carlos Menem.
context_section_description: Kirchner took a pragmatic approach to Argentine foreign policy, and Argentina–United States relations did not continue the special relations of the 1990s. Chancellor Rafael Bielsa called the relationship between the countries "cooperation without cohabitation" in contrast to that of the Menem era, which was known as "carnal relations". Kirchner opposed the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas, as it was based on majority rule among all the countries of the Americas, whereas he preferred a proportional representation system that would have given the Mercosur bloc more influence. The 4th Summit of the Americas, hosted in Mar del Plata, ended with violent protests against U.S. President George W. Bush; negotiations stalled, and the FTAA was not implemented. Kirchner told the United Nations that, although he opposed terrorism, he did not support the War on Terror. He refused to receive U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and sent forces to the United Nations Stabilisation Mission in Haiti.
  Kirchner sought increased integration with other Latin American countries. He revived and tried to strengthen the Mercosur trade bloc and improved relations with Brazil, but without automatically aligning with that country, the regional power of South America. The president tried to keep a middle ground between Brazil and Venezuela, since he considered the Brazilian Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva too conservative, and the Venezuelan Hugo Chávez too anti-American. Kirchner worked with left-wing presidents Lula, Chilean Ricardo Lagos, Chávez, Fidel Castro from Cuba and Evo Morales from Bolivia. He established a political alliance with Chávez's government, and by 2008, Argentinian exports to Venezuela were quadruple what they were in 2002. A bilateral military commission was established with Venezuela, through which some technological exchange took place.
caption: Kirchner and Presidents Hugo Chávez of Venezuela and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil at a 2006 summit in Brasília
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