Milei met with Xi Jinping and they claim the meeting was cold and limited to business.

Javier Milei applied a pattern similar to that of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping within the framework of the G20: specific meeting, few participants and few images, in a calculation aimed at not disrupt Donald's entourage. . Trump, where the discourse against the second largest economy on the planet predominates.

Comparing postcards from Xi's other bilateral relations, the difference is obvious: many photos and many Chinese officials, who make up one of the largest delegations at the summit.

The Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs sought to place the meeting in the necessary relationship with an important “client”: China is the country’s second largest buyer of goods. Although it appeared that Milei was willing to move forward with the completion of the two dams that China is building in Santa Cruz, this was denied to the LPO by official sources. “There was talk of improving economic and financial cooperation in general, no particular initiative was mentioned,” added the sources consulted.

Milei now holds meeting with Xi Jinping in Ro to ease tensions with China

The dams were paralyzed under the government of Mauricio Macri, in a gesture of political alignment with Washington, and they did not take off under the administration of Alberto Fernández, mainly due to the initial influence of Gustavo Beliz, who also sought to maintain harmony with the government. government of Joe Biden.

Argentina is also seeking support from Beijing to obtain new IMF credit that will allow Milei to dismantle the exchange rate. Kristalina Georgieva maintains close ties with Xi, to the point that a year and a half ago she was investigated for alleged collusion with the Chinese representation within the organization she chairs.

“It was the beginning of a thaw in a meeting requested by Argentina,” a source who worked on organizing the meeting told LPO.

It was the start of a thaw during a meeting requested by Argentina

As exclusively revealed by LPO, the government has decided to freeze relations with the Asian superpower and suspended the trip that Karina Milei had planned for the beginning of this month to China.

Ultimately, a Luis Caputo official ended up traveling and was not received by any Chinese authorities. “It was nothing, they were waiting for Karina Milei,” explained a source close to the matter.

The presidential sister's visit was going to be the first strong political gesture of rapprochement with the communist regime and the prerequisite to Milei's subsequent meeting with Xi Jinping, scheduled for January, which Chinese government sources have ruled out.

In this sense, an important government official confirmed that on October 15, as Trump's possible victory began to become clearer, the government informed the Chinese government that ultimately neither Karina nor any member of the government would participate in the Expo. import from Shanghai.

Xi Jinping's centrality at the G20 encourages Trump's anti-China hawks

Milei is now expected to travel to China, probably in March, to promote stronger trade deals. The most important is the possibility of extending the exchange which has been in the crosshairs of Caputo and Santiago Bausili since the beginning and which expires in June.

Milei thus found himself trapped in a difficult situation in which maintaining the link with China could generate unexpected friction with Trump, and moving away from it would lead to complications with the Asian giant which could affect macroeconomic stability if the Asian giant decides to Recover the exchange and all cross credits. what he has with Argentina.