Buenos Aires, December 10 (teleSUR-RHC)-- Argentina's incoming government is ready to resume talks in a long-running debt dispute with holdout creditors as soon as it takes office, court-appointed mediator Daniel Pollack confirmed on Wednesday.
Pollack confirmed he had met incoming Argentine Secretary of Finance Luis Caputo at his offices in New York City earlier in the week.
"Mr. Caputo expressed to Mr. Pollack the intention of the new administration to commence such negotiations promptly after they are sworn into office on Thursday, December 10," the mediator's office said in a statement.
Throughout his election campaign, Argentine President elect Mauricio Macri vowed to reach an agreement with holdout creditors, claiming that it will lead the way to increased foreign lending.
Caputo, an ex-Wall Street insider and former president of Deutsche Bank Argentina, will be in charge of negotiating a deal with vulture holdout funds.
In his statement on Wednesday, Mr. Pollack also confirmed that he had met at the end of last week with representatives of the Bondholders who hold approximately $10 billion of judgments against Argentina.
In July 2014, U.S. Federal Judge Thomas Griesa controversially blocked a deposit of $539 million from the Argentine government, instead demanding holdout claims be paid in full. Shortly afterwords, Argentina declared a “partial default” despite showing the will and capacity to pay 90 percent of its creditors on a month by month basis.
Since then, Griesa has increased pressure on Argentina by directing international financial firms to not process various payments and blocking a plan to rollover some of Argentina's debt.
The decision by the U.S. has been widely criticized by regional leaders and the international community. Since the initial ruling, several regional integration blocs have issued statements of support for the Argentine government including the ECLAC, the Southern Common Market (Mercosur), the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), the Bank of the South and Unasur.