ROSARIO, Argentina - Argentina's president said Friday that her lawyers will reach out to a U.S. judge to seek fair terms for paying all the country's creditors, including the hedge funds that have refused to accept earlier debt restructurings.
Cristina Fernandez said that her government's attorneys will ask Judge Thomas Griesa, who ordered the $1.5 billion payment, to give Argentina fair conditions to negotiate with the holdouts.
Fernandez said the terms must be in agreement with the Argentine constitution and local laws, as well as the agreement signed by Argentina with 92 per cent of creditors who accepted debt swaps in 2005 and 2010.
"I've instructed our economy minister so our lawyers can ask the judge to generate the conditions to reach a beneficial and egalitarian agreement for the 100 per cent of the creditors," Fernandez said in the port city of Rosario.
"We want to comply with 100 per cent of the creditors — the 92.4 per cent who decided to join the swaps and also those who didn't." Fernandez told a large crowd waving blue and white national flags during a national holiday.
The U.S. Supreme Court this week swatted down Argentina's last appeal against a ruling that it pay the holdouts Fernandez calls "vultures." They refused discounted debt swaps to restructure most of the $100 billion the country defaulted on in 2001.
Argentina's Cabinet chief had denied Thursday that a team would travel to New York for talks with creditors — backtracking on a promise the government's attorney made to a judge the day before.
Fernandez's government has offered a new debt swap that would make payments in Argentina to creditors who accepted previous debt restructurings. It has threatened to default on its debt saying it's impossible to pay creditors who accepted previous debt swaps due June 30. But in her speech, Fernandez did not refer to a new debt swap or the possibility of an impending default.