Milei meets Xi Jinping and completes rapprochement with China

Pragmatism prevailed over the brusque and dichotomous speeches of Javier Milei. After giving up supporting the final declaration of the G20 summit, although he emphasized his dissent, the Argentine president met this Tuesday in Brazil with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping. I will not do business with China. “I will not do business with any communist,” Milei said last year, before he had yet taken office. Pressed by the need for foreign currency, a little over a month ago he had already lowered his ideological flags and defined the Asian giant as a very interesting commercial partner. I have now completed the turn and approach towards the nation which is the second destination of Argentine exports. The governments of China and Argentina stressed that it was agreed to advance cooperation and expand trade relations.

The first bilateral meeting between Milei and Xi Jinping took place within the framework of the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro. The Argentine ultras approached the Sheraton hotel, where the Chinese president resides, and they met for 30 minutes.

China has expressed interest in increasing trade with the Argentine Republic, while Argentina has expressed its desire to diversify and increase its export offering to the Chinese market. The two countries agreed to continue working to strengthen their commercial ties and develop joint projects benefiting both economies, the Casa Rosada press release said.

The tone of official Chinese government information was similar. President Xi expressed his willingness to work with President Milei to promote the sustainable and stable development of the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Argentina, thereby better contributing to the development of their respective countries, said the vice chancellor and -speaker of the ministry during its social speech. China Foreign Affairs Networks, Hua Chunying.

The two leaders extended and accepted mutual invitations to visit their respective countries. Foreign ministers must agree on the dates. Milei had announced that he would visit Beijing in January, but there is nothing concrete about it.

Behind the far-right president's pragmatic turn towards China, while proclaiming his total alignment with the United States, lies a key link in the Argentine economy. It is not only the second largest trading partner of the South American country, destination of 8.5% of exports and origin of 17.9% of imports, but also a central player in Argentina's financial stability. The agreement to renew a to exchange of coins for the equivalent of 5 billion dollars allows the country to strengthen its meager foreign exchange reserves.

The meeting with Xi Jinping was the second consecutive event that showed Milei relegating his ultra ideas. The first came hours earlier, when he announced he would support the G20 leaders' final declaration, which he appeared to be moving toward a boycott. Without obstructing the other leaders' statement, President Javier Milei made it clear that he did not support several points, particularly the idea that greater state intervention would be the way to combat hunger, said in the official communication from the Argentine Executive. Milei has repeatedly called Brazil's Luiz Incio Lula da Silva corrupt and a communist, but this time he chose to ease tensions with the president of Argentina's biggest trading partner. On Monday, the two governments signed a memorandum of understanding to develop the gas pipeline infrastructure needed to transport natural gas extracted from the Patagonian town of Vaca Muerta to Brazil.

Meeting with Georgieva

After the meeting with Xi Jinping, the Argentine president met this Tuesday with the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva. We had another productive meeting with President Milei. We took stock of the impressive progress made in stabilizing the economy and strengthening the market. We are ready to support Argentina and its people to continue advancing these achievements, Georgieva summarized on her social networks.

The Argentine government is trying to negotiate a new agreement with the IMF. The current program, sealed in 2022, has provided the South American country with periodic disbursements to be able to pay interest on the multimillion-dollar debt contracted from the Fund itself in 2018, the largest loan granted by the organization in its history: almost 45 billion dollars. dollars. From now on, the Milei administration intends to obtain additional contributions which will allow it to increase the reserves of the Central Bank. At Casa Rosada there are high expectations to achieve this, especially after the election as future president of the United States of Donald Trump, with whom Milei has an important ideological affinity and whose support he expects within the board of directors of the Fund.

Before returning to Buenos Aires where he will receive a visit this Wednesday from the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, Milei also met the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. To close his participation in the G20, in the last family photo of the leaders present at the summit, he stood out as the only one absent.

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